January 23, 2025
Michael J. Sosulski, President
Washington College
300 Washington Avenue
Chestertown, MD 21620
Re: Washington College Chapter of the AAUP
Dear President Sosulski:
As you know, for over four years, a clear majority of the faculty at Washington College has continued to support the Washington College Chapter of the American Association of University Professors and has sought to engage the College in collective bargaining and an improved role in shared governance. To this end, in October 2020, July 2023, and November 2024, the AAUP-WC requested that the College voluntarily recognize the faculty’s right to hold a vote on whether or not to unionize and have AAUP as the exclusive bargaining representative of the faculty. On each occasion, the College rejected the AAUP-WC’s request. Our AAUP chapter even went through the legal process of filing a representation petition with the National Labor Relations Board nearly eighteen months ago, and, again, the College rejected the will of the faculty to hold a vote on unionization and challenged the faculty members’ status as employees under the NLRA. Most recently, the College reiterated its position to the NLRB in November 2024.
The AAUP-WC is writing to you to inform you that the faculty remain steadfast in their desire to have a vote on whether or not to engage in collective bargaining and to discuss our chapter’s and the faculty’s role in strengthening our system of shared governance. Because of the inaction of the NLRB and the foreseeable change in its makeup, however, the AAUP-WC will be withdrawing its petition.
While the AAUP-WC is taking this legal step, it should not be confused with any loss of support by the faculty to engage with the administration and Board on issues of critical importance to the well-being of students, staff, faculty, and the College. The faculty also remain united in their desire for a restoration of our benefits, adequate compensation for our labor, and reforms to our system of shared governance. Your refusal to recognize the faculty’s right to decide whether to unionize does not alleviate these concerns or diminish our resolve. There is no legal impediment for you to recognize the AAUP-WC and to engage in robust collective bargaining. We encourage you to do so and look forward to working with you on a host of issues, including improved transparency and communication, stronger shared governance, protecting academic freedom, and just compensation for Washington College employees. We are hopeful that you will engage the faculty, and our AAUP chapter who represents them, to this end.
United,
AAUP-WC Executive Committee on behalf of the Washington College Faculty
Letter to President Sosulski
AAUP-WC Withdraws Union Petition
January 23, 2025
Today, on behalf of the tenured and tenure-track faculty and faculty librarians at Washington College, our chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP-WC) sent a message (below) to President Sosulski regarding our decision to withdraw our petition to vote on unionization. The AAUP-WC’s case has been pending since our eligibility hearing at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in August 2023 – an exceptionally long time – due to a backlog of cases and delay tactics by employers.
The current political climate in the United States is moving rapidly toward laws and policies that are hostile to workers. Workers around the country, including us, now must make strategic decisions about if and how to proceed with unionization efforts. We made the decision to withdraw the petition out of concern that a newly constructed NLRB may begin issuing decisions that negatively impact not only our college’s faculty but those at private colleges and universities across the country who are also organizing.
As the recent months at Washington College have made clear, faculty and non-managerial staff continue to be excluded from important decisions about budgeting, planning, and compensation. Despite the efforts of the Ad Hoc Committee on Shared Governance, we have not seen adequate improvements in transparency, communication, or meaningful participation in decision making. While the AAUP-WC is not pursuing unionization at this time, we will continue our work as an advocacy chapter with the aim of strengthening shared governance, working toward just compensation for faculty and staff, and protecting academic freedom at Washington College.