BY GWENDOLYN BRADLEY

The AAUP has issued a statement on the Long Island University administration’s lockout of all four hundred members of its Brooklyn campus faculty union.

The statement reads, in its entirety:

September 6, 2016

Statement on LIU Brooklyn Lockout

Over the Labor Day weekend, the administration of Long Island University (LIU) announced an unprecedented lockout of all 400 members of its Brooklyn campus faculty union (the Long Island University Faculty Federation) in the midst of ongoing contract negotiations and in the absence of a strike, apparently in order to coerce faculty members into accepting the administration’s last offer. As of September 3, LIU Brooklyn faculty members were deprived, not only of their professional duties, but of their salaries, benefits, and access to their university e-mail accounts.

The American Association of University Professors deplores this action and supports the right of the LIU Brooklyn faculty to collectively bargain in good faith with its administration. As our Statement on Collective Bargaining asserts, “The principle of shared authority and responsibility requires a process of discussion, persuasion, and accommodation within a climate of mutual concern and trust. Where that process and climate exist, there should be no need for any party to resort to devices of economic pressure such as strikes, lockouts, or unilateral changes in terms and conditions of employment by faculty or academic management.”

On September 4, the LIU faculty senate wrote the board of trustees to denounce “the hostile and destructive action taken against all professors at the Brooklyn campus.” The senate’s letter also protests past administrative actions that it said contravened “the idea of shared governance.” By denying LIU Brooklyn faculty members access to their e-mail accounts and to the university’s website, the letter further states, the lockout has made the faculty senate unable to function, as half its members are affected.

We strongly urge the LIU administration to end the lockout and resume good faith negotiations with the faculty union. In the meantime, the AAUP will continue to monitor the situation at LIU Brooklyn.