Member Profile: John Murphy Executive Vice President 'I see myself as a bridge' between the old and new leadership

Union organizing was a natural fit for John Murphy, Local 4100Õs new vice president and NEIU political scientist.

Murphy joined the union in 1970, when he began teaching Political Science at NEIU. Six years later, newly elected Gov. Dan Walker appointed members to the Board of Governors who were favorable to a collective bargaining election. ThatÕs when Murphy became active. Now, with the current Illinois labor law, we can call for an election with enough cards signed by faculty at a school, he explained. But that law did not exist in 1976, a time when the BOG had to give approval to organizing.

So with BOG members favorable to labor, the five BOG schools had the opportunity to create the UPI. There were two steps to the necessary election. First, the faculty and staff at the five schools had to vote in favor of collective bargaining in general, and, second, they had to vote in favor of UPI representation specifically.

"So I helped round up votes on NEIU and helped oversee the election," Murphy said. He and others rounded up enough votes to create UPI as the bargaining agent for the five BOG schools.

He introduced his is officemate at NEIU to the union. Margaret Schmidt was hired in the Sociology Department after Murphy, "and I told her about it." She became an activist, headed up NEIUÕs chapter and later led UPI Local 4100.

Murphy claims to be "an ordinary member" until 1988. "I was approached by people in the chapter to run for president." While not directly involved in negotiations, Murphy had been involved in faculty governance.

"It was a surprise at the time," he said of being asked to run, but the time was right. He had been directing a fledgling research institute. "I decided it wasnÕt going to fly," he said, and started looking for something beyond teaching, when the nominating committee visited him. ("I donÕt know how many people they asked before me.") He found himself elected president of the NEIU chapter. "The greatest reward as president of the chapter has been in negotiations and in the psychological rewards of being able to sit on equal basis with our employers to discuss real issues facing the university," Murphy said. "I never expected that I would have stayed this long or enjoyed it this much," Murphy said.

Over the past 15 years, "we have become much more sophisticated and complex organization," Earlier, "UPIÕs legislative agenda was limited to blocking efforts of the anti-intellectuals in the Legislature to impose things like how much time faculty spend in their offices." The climate and union has changed with the dismantling of the BOG, as each campus negotiates its own contract. "We now have a proactive agenda with part-time people and the study of priorities (for example, UPI Research Report: Revenue, Budget Priorities and Higher Education Spending in the Fifty States) and virtually full-time representation in the Legislature," he said.

"The most important thing about organizing in higher education is that it helps reÐestablish the dignity of faculty and staff that we associate with traditional university life. Unionization is the only thing that deters the corporatization of the university or political interference."

As a professor of political science, Murphy said, "IÕve learned more about the political process and am able to relate the experiences of UPI with the literature of political science on political activity. And through the bargaining process, I have learned a good deal about human psychology and how agreements are reached by people with competing interests."

In the next few years, UPI is going to be an institution in transition, Murphy said, as new leadership steps in (with the recent retirements of Vice President Ron Ettinger and IFT Field Representative Mary Ann Abella).

"I see myself as a bridge between the new leadership and those who are more experienced in UPI history," he said. "I hope to use my knowledge as a political scientist in developing better political connections with legislators in the northern part of the state and my negotiating experience in assisting at the bargaining table where campuses would find it useful."

Murphy's appointment fills out EttingerÕs term through April 2003.

Feb. 4, 2002