Negotiations Breakdown: PASSHE Sets Stage for First Ever Faculty Strike
BY KEVIN MAHONEY Faculty union members at the 14 Pennsylvania state-owned universities (PASSHE) have had just about enough. Following three consecutive days of marathon negotiating sessions on Tuesday and more sessions scheduled for Wednesday and beyond, faculty members were showing signs of optimism that a deal might not be that far off. However, after PASSHE continued to put…
Events in India and the Future of Organized Labor
BY MARTIN KICH In an article published by AlterNet, Vijay Prashad reports on the latest and most massive general strike that occurred in India in early September. Although the article has a Marxist slant that may make it seem more op-ed than news report, Prashad gets several things undeniably right: (1) the corporate media has…
Back to Class with Lots of New Lessons: Debrief on the LIU Lockout
By DEBORAH MUTNICK Saturday, September 17, three days after the LIU administration ended its lockout of faculty in the midst of contract negotiations, I feel a little like Wile E. Coyote running off the edge of a cliff. I can’t stop running. As I hover over that abyss, before resuming the more or less normal…
No-Strike No-Lockout Clause: Wise or Not?
BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN Our Collective Bargaining Agreement at a private Catholic institution has a no-strike-no-lockout clause: ARTICLE 6: NO STRIKE, NO LOCKOUT Neither the Union nor any member of the bargaining unit shall, during the term of this Agreement, instigate, engage in, support, encourage, or condone any strike, work stoppage, other concerted refusal to…
LIU LOCKOUT OVER!!!
BY AARON BARLOW From the Long Island University Faculty Federation website: We have won a victory. The administration will end their unprecedented lockout effective 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, September 14. We will be reunited with our students and can resume our professional lives. Our collective bargaining agreement is extended until May 31, 2017, and the administration…
LIU Lockout is Over
BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN The LIU lockout is ending at 11:59 pm tonight. The administration capitulated to the faculty’s request for a mediator to settle the contract. Faculty will be reimbursed for any health costs incurred during the lockout. http://bit.ly/2csyx7k Dear LIUFF Colleagues, We have won a victory. The administration will end their unprecedented lockout effective 11:59 p.m.…
The Logic of the LIU Lockout: Does the Goldwater Rule Apply to University Presidents?
By DEBORAH MUTNICK Week 2 of the LIU Brooklyn lockout. I imagine her holed up in her office in Nassau County on Long Island, far from the Brooklyn campus she seems to be destroying, yelling at administrators to do a better job of pretending to be professors or dictating orders to a secretary sitting at…
How to Destroy College: The Long Island University Method
By AARON BARLOW The lockout of faculty at Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus continues despite almost universal condemnation. From a quirky response to the end of a contract that nobody in the press seemed to even notice, it has become something of a cause celebré. Following a story in The Nation on September 4th (two…
One Week and Counting: More Lessons from the #LIUlockout
BY DEBORAH MUTNICK Day 7 of the LIU Brooklyn faculty lockout. Those of us in the maelstrom of organizing are exhilarated and very tired. We are caught up in the nitty-gritty of producing fliers, contacting press, and participating in the actions that we call students and supporters to attend. The entire LIU Brooklyn faculty has…