What is Status Quo?
Understanding the "Status Quo": What It Means for Faculty and the University
When a group of university employees forms a union, as we have, a fundamental principle of labor law takes effect: the obligation of the university to maintain the "status quo."
For a newly formed bargaining unit (our bargaining unit is all tenure-system faculty and academic librarians in the university), understanding the concept of status quo is crucial. It defines the ground rules for how the university administration must interact with the union and all bargaining unit members during periods before the union’s first contract is ratified (or after a contract has expired but before the next contract has been negotiated).
Here is a breakdown of what the status quo means, the university's legal obligations, and how it impacts both union members and people who are not union members but still fall within the bargaining unit.
What is the "Status Quo"?
In labor law, the "status quo" refers to the existing terms and conditions of employment at the time a union is officially recognized.
Under the law (such as Michigan’s Public Employment Relations Acts for public universities), the university is strictly prohibited from making unilateral changes to policies and procedures regarding mandatory subjects of bargaining. Mandatory subjects generally include:
Wages and compensation
Hours of work
Benefits (healthcare, retirement, etc.)
Working conditions
Until the university and the union negotiate the initial contract, the university must keep these terms exactly as they were as of the date that the union was officially recognized. The purpose of this rule is to protect the collective bargaining process. If the university could simply change working conditions on its own while negotiations were ongoing, it would undermine the union's authority and strip the bargaining process of its meaning.
It is important to note that maintaining status quo does not mean “everything is paused”. It means everything should continue as it always has. For example, the university must continue to follow its regular process for raises. That does not mean no raises — that means raises should operate as they typically have in prior years.
What Does Status Quo Not Cover?
Status quo covers all mandatory subjects of bargaining. Mandatory subjects of bargaining are those issues that the university must, in good faith, negotiate with the union when it comes to contract negotiations — issues such as wages and compensation, hours of work, benefits (healthcare, retirement, etc.), and working conditions.
Status quo does not cover permissive subjects, which are all university policies and procedures that are not mandatory subjects of bargaining. Permissive subjects are issues that the university is not required to bargain with the union. They can negotiate these issues with the union if they want to, but they are not required to do so.
By law, the university cannot unilaterally make change to policies and procedures that are regarding a mandatory subject of bargaining, but the university can make unilateral changes to policies and procedures that are regarding permissive subjects.
Sometimes it is obvious whether a policy or procedure is regarding a mandatory subject or a permissive subject. For example, raises are obviously a mandatory subject of bargaining while the cost of a M&Ms packet in the vending machine probably is a permissive subject. Other times it is not as clear. If you ever have a question about whether something falls under status quo, please reach out!
The University’s Obligation: Members vs. Non-Members
A common point of confusion is how the status quo applies to individuals who choose not to become dues-paying union members.
Once a union is certified, it becomes the exclusive bargaining representative for everyone defined in the bargaining unit, regardless of their individual membership status. Therefore, the university's obligation to maintain the status quo applies to the bargaining unit as a whole.
For the University: The administration cannot bypass the union to deal directly with individual faculty or librarians—whether they are members or non-members—to negotiate side deals, alter pay structures, or change working conditions.
For Non-Members: Individuals who are in the bargaining unit but are not union members are fully covered by the status quo protections. The university cannot legally treat non-members differently by withholding standard raises or altering their specific tenure clock simply because they opted out of union membership.
What the Status Quo Looks Like for Faculty and Librarians
In the context of higher education, "wages, hours, and working conditions" translate into highly specific academic and professional practices. For tenure-system faculty and librarians, the following are examples of areas that the status quo must be maintained from unilateral changes by the university administration:
Tenure and Promotion Processes: The criteria, timelines, and procedures for achieving tenure or promotion in rank cannot be suddenly altered. The process that has been followed should continue to be followed. Note that this does not mean that tenure expectations (or other promotion requirements) cannot be changed — it means that the university cannot alter tenure expectations inconsistent with how it has altered them in the past. For example, if a department has a policy for establishing tenure expectations based on the tenure expectations of similar departments at peer universities, the department must continue to follow that policy, meaning tenure expectations can be changed but only changed in accordance to established policy. What the department cannot do is suddenly change its policy for how it establishes tenure expectations.
Working Conditions: For faculty, this includes teaching loads, course assignments, expectations for research and service, and grievance processes. For librarians, it includes established work schedules, remote work arrangements (if they were an established norm), and service expectations.
Compensation and Benefits: Base salaries, established formulas for summer pay, retirement contributions, health insurance premiums and coverage, and established processes for raises must remain stable and be followed.
Professional Development: If there is a historical practice of providing a set amount of funding for conference travel, research materials, or sabbaticals, the university generally must continue to honor those practices.
The "Dynamic" Status Quo
It is important to understand that the status quo is not always a frozen snapshot in time; it can be "dynamic." If the university has a long-standing, consistent, and established past practice of granting certain benefits, those practices become part of the status quo.
For example, if the university has universally granted an annual "step" increase or a cost-of-living adjustment or a merit raise in the past, the administration cannot suddenly freeze those raises during union negotiations. Canceling a historically established raise process would be considered a change to the status quo, and thus an illegal unilateral change.
Summary
The status quo doctrine is a protective shield for the bargaining process. It ensures a level playing field, preventing the university from using its administrative power to alter the daily lives, compensation, or career trajectories of tenure-system faculty and librarians while a contract is being negotiated. By legally binding the university to maintain existing practices for all unit members—regardless of their union membership status—the law ensures that negotiations occur at the bargaining table, right where they belong.