Growing up in a "union family" taught Jim Duggins to stand up for what he believes. During World War II, when his mother and aunts weren't sewing parachutes for soldiers, they were fighting for employees' rights through the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union.
Two years ago the SF State education professor found himself in his family's footsteps when he launched his own campaign for employees' rights -- rights he believes are being denied to some California State University faculty.
Duggins believes the CSU system is treating non-married faculty in long-term relationships unfairly by refusing to provide their domestic partners with the same insurance benefits as those given to the spouses of married faculty.
On April 1, Duggins' efforts to gain campus-wide support for his position earned him this year's Equal Rights Award from the California Faculty Association, the labor union for all CSU faculty.
"Domestic partners are two people who live together in a loving, caring relationship and share common responsibilities such as housing, shelter and food," Duggins said. "These are typically people who don't want to or cannot marry."
This often includes gay and lesbian couples, who cannot be legally married in California, he said, but it also includes many elderly couples who don't marry because they fear severe financial penalties.
But at SF State, Duggins believes the majority of faculty who will benefit from the recognition of domestic partners are those with nontraditional values in heterosexual relationships who don't feel marriage is necessary.
At 61, Duggins lives alone, but he passionately campaigns for domestic partner benefits because he is "mad as hell" at the current system.
"There is all this talk about family values, when family values that are being described by the televangelists haven't existed for 50 years," he said. "So here you have a huge group of people who are unprotected and are so accustomed to being abused that they'll put up with it. In my case it's not mercenary, but it's recognition of relationships that are caring. If we're going to be a humane society, then we have to recognize loving relationships."
According to Duggins, single people and domestic partners earn 30 percent less than their married peers after the cost of medical insurance is factored in with their salaries. He said the case is more tragic for women because they are still generally paid less then men.
For Duggins, equality will be reached when the CSU chancellor and the Board of Trustees agree to give medical, vision and dental insurance and university fee waivers -- all of which are given to spouses of faculty who are legally married -- to domestic partners.
He pointed out that several universities nationwide, including Stanford, Harvard and the University of Minnesota, have already approved policies which extend spousal benefits to domestic partners.
In May 1993, Duggins started soliciting support throughout the 20 campuses of the CSU system. As a leader of the SF State Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Faculty, Staff and Administration Coalition, he began by targeting similar gay-lesbian coalitions at other universities and encouraged them to act as spokespersons to their faculty academic senates. He urged the academic senates to pass resolutions recommending that the CFA bargain with the chancellor's office for domestic partner benefits.
"He (Jim) has put this issue in the forefront," said Rick Gutierrez, president of the SF State chapter of the CFA, which nominated Duggins for the Equal Rights Award. "He has gotten support throughout the state. He's basically started the grass-roots effort, but a lot of times what the campuses want are ignored."
Eventually 16 campuses, including SF State, passed the resolutions, according to Duggins, causing the CFA to bring the issue before the Board of Trustees in 1994. But negotiations resulted in an impasse.
According to the chancellor's office, the domestic partners' benefits were part of a negotiation package presented by the CFA, and they were not approved because the trustees didn't agree with some of the other items.
The CFA most recently held negotiations with the Board of Trustees on May 9, but still no policies for domestic partner benefits have been accepted.
According to Steve McCarthy, spokesperson for the chancellor's office, the decreasing CSU budget is the reason for the impasse. It would cost more money to extend benefits to domestic partners, he said. He would not comment further on the negotiations. To supporters of Duggins' campaign, the issue is not a question of money, but of morality.
"It is a human rights issue," said Rosemarie Marshall, a microbiology professor at Cal State Los Angeles. "It seems like the whole issue is what is appropriate behavior, and it seems funny that people feel they have the right to determine what is appropriate and how others should live."
Cal State L.A.'s academic senate has not taken action to endorse domestic partner benefits according to Eileen Roberts, the university's administrative operations analyst.
"We know we have a substantial amount of faculty -- gay and lesbian and heterosexual -- who live in this situation," said Gerie Bledsoe, general manager of the CFA in Los Angeles, "and we know it would cost very little, if anything, to add domestic partners. What's holding it back is the attitude of the state legislature.
"We will continue to negotiate with the chancellor's office. Our next best strategy is to elect legislators and governors who are a little bit more progressive, shall we say, on this issue."
Duggins remains confident with the CFA, and he is proud of the new award that sits atop his paper-cluttered desk. But more than a reward for his past efforts, it is a reminder to him of an ongoing struggle.
"The way to do it," he said, "is to keep their feet to the fire. Keep them knowing that you're not going away."