AN ANALYSIS OF THE SOURCE, NATURE, AND RESOLUTION OF GRIEVANCE FILINGS IN OREGON COMMUNITY COLLEGES, SCHOOL YEARS 1979-80 AND 1980-81

Although public sector unionism dates back at least to 1916, collective bargaining emerged mid-century when President John Kennedy signed into law Executive Order 10988 which established federal policy recognizing unions for federal employees. Today all levels of public education have unions. In today's community college, the curriculum, the professional background of the faculty, and the career goals of the students support the growth of collective bargaining.; Many of the challenges in administering collective bargaining contracts become manifest in the grievances which are filed under the procedures established in the contract. The central purpose of this paper was to develop methodology designed to monitor and analyze the formal grievances filed in Oregon community colleges for the school years 1978-80 and 1980-81.; Using the research procedure called content analysis, a survey instrument was designed for the purpose of collecting specific information from the grievances. A second instrument, a demographic data questionnaire was also designed and used to collect personal information from each grievant.; Conclusions of the study were (1) the use of content analysis as a research procedure for designing a data collection instrument is adequate, (2) the grievance procedure was used by both faculty and staff and the rate of useage (2.6%) closely parallels that of other studies, (3) the two issues most frequently grieved were reduction in force and salary scale, (4) most of the grievances were resolved within the community college structure, and (5) one third of the faculty grievances were sustained.; Recommendations were (1) that each community college and each bargaining unit adopt a uniform system of record keeping for grievance files, (2) that a centralized research office be established for the purpose of collecting and analyzing grievance data, and (3) a pre/in-service training component be developed and used by both labor and management.