Dear Editor,
It is important to get the facts straight when discussing election results, and I would like to offer a correction to the article “Against unionization” published in the Daily on Thursday, Nov. 21. With respect to the recent vote by part-time faculty to form a union, Dean James Glaser is quoted as saying that the administration’s arguments “were not persuasive to roughly 65 percent of the people who voted.” In fact, publicly available results of the election show that nearly 69.2 percent of those who voted supported unionization. This was a resounding victory, a more than two-to-one vote for the union and a sharp rebuke to the administration’s position that a more democratic workplace would be inconvenient and possibly prejudicial to the interests of part-time faculty.
In addition, the dean’s statement that “roughly 65 percent of those who voted” were not persuaded by the administration’s arguments might be interpreted to imply that this was a low turnout election. But turnout was also 65 percent, far higher than we are accustomed to in the United States for even our highest profile political elections. These numbers make it perfectly clear that a very large proportion of part-time faculty took the proactive step of voting, and a resounding majority of them expressed their support in a landslide vote for collective bargaining and the democratization of the workplace.
Respectfully yours,
Andy Klatt
Lecturer in Romance Languages
