An alert EMUTalk.org reader sent me this link late last night: from the Detroit News, “Oakland University professors OK strike.” It is hard for me to tell from the article if this is just part of the annual Kabuki dance of contract negotiations (the faculty always authorize a strike if things are still not resolved, and they are never resolved early, unfortunately) or if it really means a strike at Oakland U is imminent. The Oakland U president of the AAUP chapter, Joel Russell, is quoted as saying “It’s never looked worse in the entire time we’ve been bargaining since 1972,” but again, that’s part of the genre of negotiation talks, too.
Here’s a quote that seems to summarize the issues on the table:
Among the issues on the bargaining table are details of how the medical school will be integrated into the contract, cuts in summer pay, no new increases in salary, elimination of some health insurance plans, hiring of non-tenure track faculty and elimination of research leaves, according to the union.
Let’s hope it all works out for our colleagues slightly to the north, and let’s keep an eye on how this turns out for them.
Update: It looks like the OU faculty walked out. Here’s a message EMU-AAUP president Susan Moeller forwarded on from Howard Bunsis, who is the chair of the Collective Bargaining Congress of the National AAUP and the EMU-AAUP Treasurer.
Oakland University AAUP is on Strike
At 7:30 AM this morning, September 3, 2009, the AAUP chapter at Oakland University in Michigan officially went on strike. We at the CBC strongly support their action. In fact, there were AAUP faculty members from Eastern Michigan University, Western Michigan University, and Wayne State University supporting the Oakland AAUP at last night’s chapter meeting, where a strike authorization vote was overwhelmingly supported by the Oakland University faculty.
The Oakland University AAUP fully understands that even though the State of Michigan is struggling economically, Oakland University is in extremely strong financial position. Rudy Fichtenbaum, the treasurer of the CBC, made a presentation yesterday concerning the financial situation of Oakland, which clearly demonstrated that Oakland is striving in the current economic environment.
The issues that led to the strike are as follows:
• The administration’s desire to gut or even completely eliminate all governance provisions from the contract
• The administration’s desire to hire significant numbers of faculty on a fixed term, non-tenure track basis
• A refusal to disclose information regarding a proposed medical school
• On health care, the imposition of what is called “healthy living choices,” where faculty who are deemed obese, smokers, or drinkers have to submit to certain conditions or face significantly higher health care costs.
• A salary freeze proposed by the administration, which, when combined with the health care provisions, leads to a significant pay cut being offered to the faculty
We will continue to monitor the situation at Oakland University. For now, lets all make sure we support the faculty as they stand up for the rights and interest of the AAUP. You can check out the Oakland AAUP website at http://www.oaklandaaup.org/default.asp for updates.
