The Founding of the Union, by Neil McDowell



Dave Hoffman comes back from a meeting frothing at the mouth about unionizing our faculty.
Hoffman calls a meeting with Neil McDowell, Cecile Baril, himself, and John Finch, who if I recall correctly was one of the “SOC Eight” fired. He went to Washington at a much higher salary.
At this meeting it is decided that if we go further with the process of unionization, McDowell will be President or some such title, since he is the only one with tenure.
We call a meeting with representatives from each department present. We propose organizing for collective bargaining to the group. I think the representatives then polled their departments to get an indication of support, or lack of same. Arnold Wolfe reported a resounding lack of support from the Business Department.
We forge ahead, in hot pursuit of knowledge regarding the legal process for organizing. A representative from, I think, the Economics Department who had experience as a negotiator, with a name like John Anderson [Editor’s note: the name is actually John Abernathy, who advised the group but was not a chief negotiator.]
Somewhere along about here we have a full faculty meeting in the music recital hall to explain what had happened, what is happening, and what we hope will happen. We have strong support with the exception of the Business Department, who oppose us in a block (with the exception of Arnold Wolfe who remains a strong supporter).
Hoffman has McDowell write a letter to sours objecting to some picky thing Sours had done. McDowell gets called into Sours’ office. Hoffman accompanies him. Our negotiator shows up and things progress smoothly, with Sours almost admitting he had acted hastily.
A hearing is held in the student senate room with AP:SOC and OSSHE presenting their case for and against the right to organize. AP:SOC wins a resounding victory.
An election is held, campus wide, to determine whether or not we should go ahead with organizing for collective bargaining. Resounding “yes.”
We organize. Bill Cornelius is voted in as our first official President, much to McDowell’s relief.
We are pursued by AFT, OEA, OSEA (Oregon State Employees Association, later to become OPEU). OEA wins.

At this point McDowell more or less rides off into the wilderness.

Cecile mentions a senator coming to our rescue. Not Len Hannon. I seem to recollect Ted Kulongoski coming down a couple of times. Might it have been him?