A little over 35 years ago, a group of Academic Senate faculty at Berkeley concluded that the University by itself could not halt the alarming decline in faculty compensation caused by accelerating inflation and legislative inertia. They also foresaw the day when legislation would allow for public employee unions in higher education (Higher Education Employee Relations Act or HEERA).

Therefore, UC faculty formed associations of Academic Senate faculty first at Berkeley, then at UCLA, and then on all the campuses of the University of California. The FAs helped draft legislation that would ensure that the academic quality of the University of California would never be compromised. When that legislation passed (AB 1091) in 1979, it became clear that the authority of the Academic Senate was restricted to academic matters and the Senate could not represent the economic or employment interests of its faculty before the University or the Legislature or the Regents. A group of Senate faculty-not acting as the Senate but as an independent association of faculty members–would take on that important responsibility.

HEERA protects the rights of faculty to participate in employee organizations

Higher education employees shall have the right to form, join and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations and for the purpose of meeting and conferring. Higher education employees shall also have the right to refuse to join employee organizations or to participate in the activities of these organizations subject to the organizational security provision permissible under this chapter.

The Faculty Association is a protected “employee organization” under HEERA

“Employee organization” means any organization of any kind in which higher education employees participate and that exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with higher education employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment of employees.

The Regents are a “higher education employer”

“Employer” or “higher education employer” means the regents in the case of the University of California, the directors in the case of the Hastings College of the Law, and the trustees in the case of the California State University, including any person acting as an agent of an employer.