The SIUC administration has hired a lawyer from the same law firm that represented the University in the faculty’s failed unionization attempt nearly a decade ago.

John Haller, vice president for Academic Services, said Robert J. Smith Jr., will assist the administration’s negotiating team when negotiations for a full contract begin. No date has been set yet.

Last week, the faculty union voted down an interim agreement. Administrators and SIUC faculty union President Jim Sullivan have said they likely will begin negotiating a full contract next month.

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Smith is from the Chicago law firm Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson and specializes in public sector labor and employment law.

He is an expert and will help us make sure we have a good first contract, Haller said. He will help us get a contract that works and that doesn’t have inappropriate language. He’ll help us get a clear, unambiguous contract.

No one on our table really has experience with a first contract, and we will be the first to admit it.

Haller did not know the cost of hiring the lawyer.

Lawyers from Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson have been hired by University administrators in the past. The firm represented the SIU Board of Trustees in the 1980s when the Illinois Education Association/National Education Association was pushing for an SIUC faculty union vote.

In 1988, SIUC faculty and administrative/professional staff voted to not be represented by unions. The SIUC Illinois Education Association/National Education Association, which represents about 680 tenured and tenure-track faculty was formed almost 10 years later in November.

The SIUC faculty first filed a petition for the 1988 election with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board in 1985. The University, represented by Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson, objected to the appropriateness of the bargaining units. The University maintained that both SIUC and SIUE faculty be represented in a single unit.

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The labor board then conducted hearings and determined in 1987 that faculty could bargain collectively, and that faculty should be represented in separate bargaining units.

The University appealed the decision in 1987, and the labor board responded in 1988 stating that elections were to be in November 1988.

Fifty-nine percent of the faculty voted not to unionize, and no union was formed.

Prior to the 1988 election, the IEA/NEA placed a full-page advertisement in the Daily Egyptian claiming that Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson were union busters. The advertisement, among other things, accused the firm of using legal tactics to stall a union vote by faculty until they lost interest. It also accused the University administration of spending $245,929 to pay the firm.

However, then Vice Chancellor of Administration Tom Britton issued a memo stating the University had used the services of the law firm numerous times since the mid-1970s and that the union busting charge was false.

Sullivan would not comment on his reaction to the law firm.

We have no idea if the Seyfarth & Shaw of 1988 is the same as the Seyfarth & Shaw of almost 1998, Sullivan said. We will base that on their conduct at the table.

The lawyer is not the only change to the administration’s lineup.

Haller said Margaret Winters, associate vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, also was appointed spokeswoman for the administration. Associate Vice Chancellor for Administration William Capie was the previous spokesman and is still on the negotiating team.

(SIU President Ted) Sanders indicated this (negotiations) was to be a very evolutionary process, and that he would be testing various people at the table. And for that reason we have changes coming in, Haller said. (Winters) is the vice chancellor in charge of personnel, and in most campuses collective bargaining centers around that position.

Sullivan would not comment on either change.

We are going to reserve judgment about these changes until we have experience with these individuals at the bargaining table and based on their conduct at the table, Sullivan said. They are ultimately accountable to the Board of Trustees and President Sanders, and we will be evaluating their conduct in light of that reality.

Haller said the changes will be effective come the first negotiation session. No date has been set, but Winters said the faculty and administration likely will meet in October.