Statewide university faculty union to vote on strike

Faculty at state universities across Pennsylvania this week are voting on whether to authorize their union to call a strike after nearly 40 negotiating sessions over the last two years have failed to produce a contract.

But a work stoppage isn't likely any time soon.

"If we had a burning desire to go out, we could be out the Monday after Thanksgiving, but I don't think anybody has a burning desire to go out," said Steve Hicks, a Lock Haven University English professor who serves as president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF).

If faculty vote yes and the union decides a strike is needed, it probably would not occur until the second semester, which begins Jan. 28, Hicks said. Finals for the current semester conclude Dec. 14.

Unlike public school district unions, APSCUF is not required to give the system notice of a strike.

The union includes 6,000 faculty and coaches at 14 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education: West Chester, Cheyney, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, Bloomsburg, Millersville, California, Edinboro, Slippery Rock, Mansfield, Indiana, Clarion, Lock Haven, and Shippensburg.

The faculty felt the vote was needed to spur protracted negotiations, since their previous pact expired June 2011, the union said.

Major issues of contention include health care, pay for distance learning courses, and compensation for part-time temporary faculty. The sides are also at odds over the timing of raises whose amount has been agreed on. Members would get no retroactive raise for 2011-12, 1 percent this year, 1 percent next year, and 2 percent in 2014-15. At issue is when during those periods the raise would be given.

Starting temporary faculty who work full-time earn about $45,000 annually, Hicks said. The salary scale tops at about $105,000 with $67,000 as the average.

The negotiations are taking place with a backdrop of declining state funding for the system and a decrease in enrollment.

"We need to come up with some cost savings," said Kenn Marshall, the system's spokesman. "Right now our students and their families are covering nearly three-quarters of the costs of operating our universities." About 27 percent is funded by the state.

Marshall said the system wants to make changes in health care that would lower premiums for the system but also for the employees, saving about $7.5 million. The changes would cause higher co-pays and deductibles, he acknowledged.

The system also wants to discontinue paying faculty extra for developing and teaching distance-learning courses. And pay for part-time temporary faculty would be frozen under the administration's proposal.

There has never been a faculty strike in the system's history, though authorization votes have been taken in each of the last three rounds of talks, in 1999, 2003, and 2007.

Hicks noted that this is the longest the union has been without a contract, and said morale was suffering.

"There's a lot of talk about people looking to leave if they possibly can," Hicks said.

Results of the vote are expected Friday or Monday.

Lisa Millhous, a communications studies professor and union head at West Chester, said she expected a majority of her school's members to approve the measure.

"We're hopeful that maybe we can get some pressure and ... get this over with," she said.

Marshall said universities are planning in case of a strike, but declined to describe those plans.

"Our ultimate goal would be to try to continue to operate the universities to the greatest extent possible," he said.

Hicks said much depends on progress in negotiations. The next session is scheduled for Dec. 11.

"As long as there's movement," he said, "there's hope that we won't have to go down that particular road."