From Freep.com: “Ferris faculty to discuss latest contract offer.” Apparently, faculty there have been working without a contract for 13 months, not exactly a solution I’d want to see here, though something I seriously doubt would happen if we agreed to continue working. The article closes with this:
Negotiations between Eastern Michigan University faculty and administration continued into the day Sunday but spokespersons for both sides were unable to return calls to the Free Press.
Just looked up an update of this story. The Ferris faculty did not reach agreement on a contract, but they are going to report to class tomorrow. I’m sure there’s a whole lot going on that I don’t know about, but at least from a distance, it seems nice that the Ferris faculty are putting Education First. As I’ve said earlier, a strike need not be automatic once a contract expires. Seems they’ve figured that out in Big Rapids.
Here’s a link to a story/update on all this:
http://www.freep.com/article/20100829/NEWS06/100829031/1001/NEWS/Ferris-State-faculty-vote-no-but-will-be-in-class
It sounds complicated in that there is some dispute as to whether or not the union leadership took it to the faculty.
I too would just as soon continue to work without a contract, but working for 13+ months without a contract would be stupid.
Steve, the contract expired in June. They are now entering their third month without a contract. They have been negotiating for 13 months.
Fair enough– my bad. But I still wouldn’t want to be without a contract for 3 months and/or negotiating one for 13. Still, I’d rather keep negotiating and not strike.
BTW, I don’t know if I mentioned this or not, but the PTs have extended their contract to the end of September. I don’t know if that routinely happens or not though, and I think it’s the second extension they’ve had.