Why Professors Turn to Organized Labor

I ran across this 9 year old editorial from the New York Times that is still relevant today. The author, Ellen Willis (at the time a professor at NYU) argues that the Yeshiva decision is essentially moot in today’s climate, characterized by the corporatization of the university, the burgeoning of the use of part-time faculty, the assault on tenure, and the centralization of power in administrations and Boards of Trustees. Unfortunately, although “common sense” indicates that Yeshiva may be moot, it is still the law of the land, a delightful legacy of the early years of Reagan’s assault on unionization in the United States.