Strike Over?

The Southern says the Faculty Association will call off the strike against SIUC, effective immediately.  No contract signed but enough progress has been made that the Association will advise members to return to work.

Update:  The University's Facebook page has  a letter from Chancellor Cheng posted, confirming the end of the strike.

Negotiations Continue

SIUC strike negotations ended last night when the administration presented the FA with a revised offer and headed home for the evening.  Negotations were scheduled to start up again at 9;30 this morning.

Negotations Off Again

According to this Facebook page, the administration broke off negotiations with the Faculty Association this evening, meaning at least one more day of striking.

Why the Strike?

hHd the opportunity to talk with a supporter of SIUC's strike (though not an actual striker), trying to get a better understanding why the strikers feel it is important enough for them to strike.  From the conversation, a few factors emerged as underpinning the reasons for the strike, as least for some long time SIUC faculty members:

1) the SIUC 104, fired in the spring of 1974, ostensibly as part of a budget crisis/financial emergency.  However, it turned out that almost all of those fired were among the university's most outspoken opponents to the Vietnam War and many people perceived the university's finances as a convenient peg upon which to hang the removal of a disruptive element.  Some long -time members of the faculty see the current financial situation as the opportunity for the administration to void tenure and terminate a number of long serving ( and higher paid) faculty, replacing them with lower cost term faculty.

2. Last year's furlough days were at least troublesome and possibly in violation of the contract faculty has with the faculty and staff.  At best they were most burdensome on those members of the university making the lease, since originally everyone took 4 furlough days whether they were a vice president or an office manager.  It was only after significant bad PR, including President Poshard,  that Chancellor Cheng and the Vice Chancellors took more.    Compare that to UofI's policy, which spread the pain out, with higher paid administrators taking 10 days furlough while those making less than $30,000 took none.

There are other reasons as well, but those two stood out during the conversation.

Steeerike!

Looks as if the FA is the only one of the four groups to not reach an agreement before the deadline this morning.  Here is WSIU's report.  The DE has stories here, here and here.  The Southern has stores here, here, here and here.  Here's the Faculty Association's viewpoint and here's a statement from GA United and the Non-Ttenure Track Association, as well as the ACE.

Strike Update

No agreement as of 7:30 this evening.  The following message was posted by the Chancellor on the university's Facebook page about the same time:

Dear Students:

As you know, four campus unions have indicated they would walk off the job tomorrow (Nov. 3) if we cannot reach contract agreements. At this hour, we are continuing to negotiate with the bargaining teams for these unions, and I remain hopeful of a settlement.

In the event any of the unions chooses to strike tomorrow, we are prepared to maintain normal operations across the campus. Your classes will meet as regularly scheduled in their normal locations, and I encourage you to attend all of your classes. We expect a limited number of faculty may walk off the job. All classrooms are being monitored for attendance. In the event your professor or instructor does not show up for class, a University employee will address the class and make arrangements for continuing your coursework.

I will keep you updated on the situation as new information becomes available.

Sincerely,

Rita Cheng
Chancellor

FA Bargaining Points

In case you are interested. the linkon this page for the List of FA Interests and Issues Presented in Bargaining gives about 11 pages of  points the Faculty Association is negotiating with the administration over. One point I see fairly high on the list is Fair Share or what my Dad calls a union shop.  Employees do not have to belong to the union but have to have an among equivalent to union dues deducted from their salaries that is paid to the union:

Effective partnership between Faculty and Administration—Fair share.  How can we bring the Faculty Association in parity with other unions on campus who have Fair Share provisions?  How can we ensure a strong Faculty to work effectively in partnership with the Administration?

Strike Overview

The St. Louis Post Dispatch has a look at the ramifications if the  SIUC unions call the strike.

Strike FAQs

These have been up for awhile (since October 7)  but thought those not directly connected with the university might want to see the FAQs the Chancellor's office posted regarding the strike for faculty/staff and students. Here's the IEA's take on the Chancellor's FAQ.

Getting Closer

According to this story, the SIUC Faculty Association has set Nov. 3 as the date for striking if negotiations with the administration fail.  Neither side is going to come out of this well. The administration is distracted from other problems at the university and the Faculty Association may see a call for its removal as the negotiating agent for the faculty.

New Faculty Group

A new group of faculty, calling itself the Faculty for Sensible for Negotiation, has sent out a letter calling for desertification of the Faculty Association as the bargaining representative of SIUC's faculty.  the letter calls for turning negotiations over to the Faculty Senate.

While I don't particularity care for any organization that calls itself "Sensible", as too many times that's a code word for "let's roll back regulatory protections", the FA has been around for 15 years now and seems to have had problems with all five of the administrations that have cycled through during that period. Either the university has a habit of appointing very poor chancellors and administrators (not that far fetched given the number that have cycled through) or the FA is a very contentious organization.

Strike on Facebook

For those wanting to follow the discussion on the possible strikes at SIUC, the pro-strike faction has a Facebook page here.

Merrily Marching Forward

Civic service union employees at SIUC voted to authorize a strike yesterday.  Dollars to donuts the other two follow along within the next couple of days. 

Update:  Just heard that, with 88% attendance, 92% of the Faculty Association members voted to strike.

Why Strike?

From the Deo Volente blog, Dave Johnson gives his reasons for voting for a strike at SIUC

Strike Vote

Jonathan Bean, history professor at SIUC (and author of the blog FreeU) has posted his reasons for voting planning to vote No in the Faculty Association's upcoming strike vote.

1 Down

and four to go.  Looks as if the Service Employees International Union has signed a four year contract with small slaary increases each year. that leaves four other unions to go, including the faculty union, which has a strike vote scheduled for the 28th.

I find it hard to work up a lot of sympathy for the faculty union.  Compared to almost every other job in the area, they are quite well paid and the job is hardly as onerous as one of the fruit pickers in the migrant labor camps near Cobden.  The administration must really be abusing SIUC faculty if they feed the need to call a strike vote.

Strike Watch

According to this post from the SIUC Faculty  Association, the faculty have gone without a contact 422 days. For supposedly intelligent people, that seems like an awfully long time to not be able to come to some sort of agreement.  On the other hand, looking at the current situation in Congress, maybe not.

Show Me the Money Tour

Several SIUC faculty and staff organizations will host a tour of campus buildings this Friday, starting at noon.  Each stop will focus on the building's relationship to the university's mission and its place in campus funding.  Needless to say, since the Graduate Assistants Union and Faculty Association are among the sponsors and have a tense relationship with the university at best, I'd bet the speakers indicate that the ways in which the university spends its money is not the best use of available funding.