Lawmaker to propose ban on unions at South Dakota's public colleges

South Dakota's House Speaker said he will bring legislation in 2018 to outlaw collective bargaining at the state's six public universities.

Rep. Mark Mickelson told the Executive Board on Monday that he would work to ban labor unions that represent more than 1,000 faculty members in South Dakota.

The Sioux Falls Republican said he was inspired to bring the proposal when he chaired a panel considering moving the South Dakota School of Law to Sioux Falls from Vermillion. He said professors weren't willing enough to teach courses on weekends or weeknights due to terms of their contracts, prompting his frustration.

“Something needs to change, these people need to be shaken up a little bit," Mickelson said.

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Members of the state's public faculty union were quick to criticize the proposal, warning it would lower the quality of higher education in South Dakota.

“You’re not going to attract any good professors," said Bill Adamson, past president of the labor union South Dakota Council of Higher Education. "You’re going to be hiring from the bottom of the pool of candidates. It’s a dangerous trend."

Specifically, Adamson said, candidates for public university faculty positions wouldn't want to accept the jobs if they could be fired from those jobs at any time. Currently, collective bargaining agreements prevent that practice.

The union is currently prohibited from negotiating salaries and benefits, a spokeswoman for the South Dakota Education Association said Monday, and instead focuses on evaluation processes and workplace grievances.

Mickelson brought a similar proposal earlier this year that banned collective bargaining at the state's technical schools. The law took effect in July.

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Five other states — North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and Texas — have enacted similar laws outlawing collective bargaining by public university faculty. And Mickelson said he hoped South Dakota could be next.

"I don’t think it serves the mission of educating our kids, the pendulum swung too far,” Mickelson said.

Lawmakers will consider the measure when they return to Pierre for legislative session in January.

Follow Dana Ferguson on Twitter @bydanaferguson, call 605-370-2493 or email dferguson@argusleader.com