Faculty Strike at Pennsylvania Public Colleges and Universities!

penn-faculty-stike

Dear Commons Community,

The strike at the Pennsylvania public colleges and universities is entering its third day.  As reported by Penn Live:

“The more than 105,000 students who attend state universities will miss a third day of classes on Friday as the faculty strike continues with no talks scheduled to resolve its labor contract dispute.

An afternoon check with spokespeople for the State System of Higher Education and the Association Of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, which represents the 5,300 professors, confirmed a willingness to go back to the bargaining table but that is as far as they had gotten to making that happen.

“We remain committed to achieving a settlement that is fair to our faculty and to our students as quickly as possible. Even though there are no formal negotiating sessions underway, the State System is working hard to find a path forward,” State System Kenn Marshall said.

The faculty union President Ken Mash said on a Facebook announcement on Thursday afternoon while standing outside Dixon University Center, the system’s headquarters in Harrisburg,  “If they want to come out right now and negotiate. we’re willing to go ahead and do that. But I don’t want to be totally unfair either because they do have my cell phone number so if they want to call later on and say they are ready to negotiate. We’re ready to do that too.”Dozens of students traveled to Dixon University Center to pose some questions to system officials about what led to the strike and the impact it was having on them. But it was clear their allegiance lies with the faculty, which Marshall said is expected since they know faculty from their classes but don’t know the system administrators who are on the other side of the contract dispute.

The faculty held true to their threat of going on strike on Wednesday if no tentative agreement had been reached on a new contract to replace one that expired on June 30, 2015. Negotiating teams met for five straight days in the lead up to the strike deadline but the sides left the table, in the union’s eyes, as far apart as when they began on a plethora of issues ranging from salary and health care changes to work rules. 
This is the first strike in the 33-year-old system’s history and the union has indicated it will continue until a tentative agreement is in hand.This labor dispute affects students who attend Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester.”

We wish our colleagues well and stand in solidarity!

Tony

 

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