Stalled contract negotiations lead AAUP into impasse

Portland State’s full-time faculty union is inching closer to a possible strike, after stalled contract negotiations with university administrators, over what they see as unfair pay, reached a state of impasse Friday.

But administrators say that the union’s previous contract has been extended until the end of the school year, which could prevent the union from striking until June 30.

Carol Mack, vice provost for Academic Administration and Planning and chief negotiator for the PSU administration, said the contract has “a no-strike clause,” referring to Article 21 of the agreement, which prohibits faculty from striking while the document is in effect.

Mack said in an e-mail that she could not comment on specifics of the contract negotiations, but said both parties previously agreed to extend the 2005-07 contract to June 30, 2008.

The Portland State chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), PSU’s full-time faculty union, reached a state of impasse after the ongoing salary mediation process between administrators and the union stalled last term.

According to an April 11 AAUP press release, the declaration of impasse allows seven days for the union and PSU to submit their final offers to the state mediator. After that time there will be a required 30-day cool down period before the possibility of a faculty strike.

The impasse puts the union one step closer to the right to strike, the press release states.

Jonathan Uto, AAUP chief faculty negotiator, said the three major issues that are stalling the negotiation process are the amount of faculty pay increases from the 2005-07 bargaining agreement and when those changes would be implemented, as well as the high faculty workload.

“Workloads of faculty are having a negative effect on students,” he said.

The AAUP has been in collective bargaining since April of last year and in mediation with the university since January. Since mediation stalled, faculty members have held protest rallies at Oregon University System meetings and events such as the annual Simon Benson Awards dinner in an attempt to get the attention of PSU administrators, as well as state legislators in charge of education.

Uto said there is a salary difference between PSU faculty and what other professors in the state make. According to the PSU-AAUP, faculty members make about $3,000 to $7,000 less than their contemporaries at the University of Oregon and Oregon State University.

In talking with faculty, Uto said he hears a common concern about a possible strike. People often send him e-mails that say, “I don’t want to hurt the students.”

The number of faculty who choose to pay an increased amount of dues to become full AAUP members is increasing as tensions rise with the administration, Uto said. The faculty’s increasingly negative views of the administration have been a useful recruitment tool for the union, he said.

ASPSU Vice President Brad Vehafric said student government has maintained a policy of faculty support and if the negotiations were to lead to a strike, ASPSU would support the faculty. The student senate is meeting soon to come up with a resolution dealing with a response to a possible strike, he said.

“We feel that a happier faculty leads to a better education,” Vehafric said.