An Angry Professor Mounts His Own Labor Protest in Alabama
Note to college administrators: Think twice about getting into fights with experts on labor activism.
The risk is ending up locked in battle with the likes of Glenn Feldman, a tenured labor historian at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Administrators there abandoned a training center that he ran. Convinced that they withdrew support—and now are trying to drive him out—because they have a pro-business bias, the professor has come at his bosses with two lawsuits, a faculty grievance, and a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint. He also mobilized members of the United Steelworkers to swamp the facsimile machines in the administration's central office, and has sent the entire State Legislature an e-mail message accusing the University of Alabama system's administration of misusing state funds and victimizing him because he is Hispanic.
Along the way, Mr. Feldman helped establish a chapter of the American Association of University Professors on his campus—getting himself elected as its president—and persuaded the state conference of the AAUP to take up his cause.
He probably is not done yet.
"I am being treated in a way that is beyond description," Mr. Feldman said in an interview. He characterized himself as someone "who has wanted to do nothing but write and teach," but now finds himself defending his livelihood from people who object to his views....
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The risk is ending up locked in battle with the likes of Glenn Feldman, a tenured labor historian at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Administrators there abandoned a training center that he ran. Convinced that they withdrew support—and now are trying to drive him out—because they have a pro-business bias, the professor has come at his bosses with two lawsuits, a faculty grievance, and a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint. He also mobilized members of the United Steelworkers to swamp the facsimile machines in the administration's central office, and has sent the entire State Legislature an e-mail message accusing the University of Alabama system's administration of misusing state funds and victimizing him because he is Hispanic.
Along the way, Mr. Feldman helped establish a chapter of the American Association of University Professors on his campus—getting himself elected as its president—and persuaded the state conference of the AAUP to take up his cause.
He probably is not done yet.
"I am being treated in a way that is beyond description," Mr. Feldman said in an interview. He characterized himself as someone "who has wanted to do nothing but write and teach," but now finds himself defending his livelihood from people who object to his views....