State faculty union sets Oct. 19 strike date

Faculty at Pennsylvania's 14 state universities will go on strike Oct. 19 unless a contract agreement is reached, the union announced Friday morning.

Kenneth M. Mash, president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, made the announcement during a press conference in Harrisburg, where union leaders are meeting Friday and Saturday.

"My colleagues and I are tired of wasting our time," Mash, a political science professor at East Stroudsburg University, said. "If we have to go on strike, we are going to do whatever it takes."

Mash said there is no limit on how long the strike would go.

It would be the first in the system's history, coming in the middle of the semester and disrupting education for 105,000 students at Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester universities.

The state system issued a press release in response, asking faculty to return to negotiations next week, with the strike date now less than a month away.

"A strike by faculty runs counter to everything that higher education stands for," said system spokesman Kenn Marshall. "We should be able to find a resolution through meaningful discussion, continued dialogue, and reason. We can't afford to stop meeting. This is too important to our students. We need to continue talking."

Mash said the union is prepared to return to the table and continue negotiations and has offered five meeting dates.

He also announced that the system's request to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board to have a fact-finder review the matter was denied. If it had been granted, that process would have delayed a possible strike for 40 days.

The system appears to have snubbed the union's request for binding arbitration, he said.

The union will hold a strike workshop on Saturday to prepare for the looming work stoppage, he said.

The sides have been divided on health insurance and salary costs, but also on work rules involving adjunct faculty, research and distance education. The union represents about 5,500 faculty and coaches. Its previous contract expired June 30, 2015. The starting salary for a full-time instructor is $46,609, with the top of scale at $112,238 for an experienced full professor.

Although the system maintains it has offered $159 million in pay raises, Mash said much of that money would be given back in health care concessions that the system is demanding.

Marshall countered: "$159 million is serious money. We are committed to providing our faculty raises, but some cost savings are necessary to ensure the financial sustainability of the system."

The state system, he said, has offered faculty members raises ranging from 7.25 percent to 17.25 percent over the life of the three-year contract.

Mash said the system is attempting to push faculty around.

"We need [Chancellor] Frank Brogan to tell his people to stop fooling around at the table," he said.