Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
The Wright State University faculty union has accused the administration of unfair labor practices as a proposed strike date nears.
The union has filed a complaint with the State Employment Relations Board accusing administrators of breaking collective bargaining ruled by negotiating in public, telling the news media about their “last, best offer” before telling the union, and failing to give the union requested information that was needed to continue negotiations.
The faculty union and university administration have been at odds over contract negotiations.
The union, a 564-member chapter of the American Association of University Professors, is set to strike at 8 a.m. Jan. 22, the second week of the universities winter class schedule.
The board of trustees on Jan. 4 issued a “last, best offer,” which means that was the final offer they plan to give. It would move faculty union members into a “uniform” health care plan, maintains current rules of retrenchment, includes no pay raises and would allow faculty to be furloughed as part of “cost savings days.”
The board’s vote took the union by surprise since the two sides haven’t negotiated since early November, a union representative previously said.
The complaint states that prior to the “last, best offer” union leaders had sought more information from the administration related to areas that the union could be willing to make financial concessions, which “indicated clear intent of the (union) AAUP-WSU to negotiate.”
The complaint states a lawyer for the university said Dec. 7 that he would get more information as requested but never responded or answered follow up emails.
Then about a month later, the union states its members learned through the media instead of from the administration that trustees had given a final offer.
