Management calls them “union avoidance consultants.” Labor people call them “union busters.” But whatever term you use for them, you can count on them showing up whenever workers dare to tell the boss that they are thinking about forming a union. All across the country, thousands of lawyers, consultants and outright shysters rake in billions of dollars working for anti-union employers. They spread fear and propaganda and some of them even assist employers in breaking labor laws just so workers will be too scared to choose union representation. And now Montgomery College has hired a “union avoidance” lawyer of its own.
Montgomery College’s union busting started when the college’s adjunct professors approached SEIU Local 500 to discuss representation. Many of us remember college faculty as being tenured, comfortable residents of the ivy tower. But today’s college professors are increasingly part-time, paid by the class, with few benefits and no job security. Montgomery College’s faculty is now mostly comprised of adjunct professors who, unlike tenured faculty, have no union representation. According to the Gazette, the college’s adjuncts are paid $880 per credit hour taught, with most classes worth three credit hours. Full-time faculty can make up to $3,038 per credit hour. SEIU reports that adjuncts do not have health benefits or defined benefit pensions. When SEIU began gathering authorization cards from workers for a state representation election, the college acted quickly to put an end to it.
Montgomery College hired Darrell VanDeusen, a lawyer with Baltimore law firm Kollman & Saucier. VanDeusen, recently named as one of Maryland’s “Super Lawyers” in Baltimore Magazine, describes his practice as “providing advice in matters such as compliance with anti-discrimination laws, union avoidance and collective bargaining, family and medical leave and fair labor standards.” The law firm also states that VanDeusen “has defended employers in hundreds of charges before the EEOC and other state and local fair employment practice agencies” and “has argued cases in state and federal courts that have interpreted the law in favor of employers.” SEIU states that the going rate for top “union avoidance” lawyers in Maryland is $400-600 per hour. If that is true for VanDeusen, he could earn more in 30 hours of billing ($12,000- $18,000) than an adjunct professor could earn teaching four courses in a semester ($10,560).
What is Montgomery College getting from VanDeusen? We’ll take a look in Part Two.