Update Sept. 9 1:00 P.M.:

Judge told both parties to keep negotiating til evening if necessary. He feels there’s hope for progress. Both parties have til 10 a.m. tomorrow or a hearing will be held for final ruling.

 

Update Sept. 9:

OU administration said in e-mail sent Tuesday to the campus community that AAUP walked out from negotiation twice on Tuesday and posted another press release on the university’s web site.

E-mail: OU says AAUP walked out from negotiation again

Press release:http://www.oakland.edu/view_news.aspx?sid=34&nid=5814

 

Oakland University administration is trying to force its faculty to return to teaching classes before the faculty contracts are agreed upon. 

 

The OU administration and the faculty union may be in the Oakland County Circuit Court Wednesday at 10 a.m., when OU will ask Judge Edward Sosnick to order the teachers back to work while contract talks are ongoing.  

 

Joel Russell, president of OU’s chapter of American Association of University professors that represents about 600 faculty members, said at a rally Tuesday afternoon that he was at one of these hearings before, and the judge sent both teams into a different room and told them to stay there until the matter was settled. 

 

“We think this will happen again,” Russell said. But he said that if the judge ruled in OU’s favor and ordered faculty to resume teaching classes, the faculty will do so. “I hate saying that,” Russell said. 

 

As standard policy, OU administration has been tight-lipped about the contract negotiations since they began in May, but president Gary Russi sent an e-mail to all students Tuesday, and OU sent out press releases. 

 

“We are pleased that Judge Sosnick saw the urgency of this situation and encouraged that he recognizes the importance of getting students back in the classroom as soon as possible,” Russi said in the press release. “We know that this strike is negatively impacting our students and their studies, and we hope to see it resolved quickly.”  

 

The judge has ordered both teams to continue negotiating, and if a resolution isn’t reached by class time Wednesday, both sides are to appear in court. Lizabeth Barclay of AAUP said as of Tuesday evening the teams were still bargaining. 

 

OU said for faculty to be picketing instead of teaching classes is an “illegal strike” by the faculty union. OU also said faculty pay will be docked during the strike. 

 

The faculty union said it is not a strike, but a legal “job action,” and has recently been using the term “unfair labor practice protest.” Barclay also said AAUP believes the docking of pay is illegal because the practice applies only to K-12 schools. 

 

At Tuesday’s rally, attended by hundreds of faculty and students supporting the faculty’s cause, Russell said that around 4 a.m. Tuesday, both sides had almost reached a satisfactory agreement, when OU’s team walked in with “a poison pill” that was a deal-breaker for the union, a “full pardon for President Russi.” 

 

Russell said OU wanted AAUP to withdraw an unfair labor practice suit it filed earlier this summer because it said the union can’t use a document Russi signed in 1999 as a defense. OU said the document is invalid because Russi didn’t have the authority to sign it, and without the document being approved by OU’s board of trustees, the union accepted it at its peril without guarantee.

 

A judge ruled on this lawsuit on AAUP’s behalf, but OU has appealed that decision. 

 

AAUP said it will harm faculty governance if the faculty can’t even count on a document signed by President Russi.  

 

AAUP filed an additional unfair labor practice Sept. 2 because it believed OU administration didn’t bargain fairly all summer. 

 

OU initially tried to get a judge to issue a temporary restraining order Tuesday forcing faculty back to work, but Russell said the judge declined to sign it, and instead arranged for the hearing. 

 

Classes continue to be canceled until announced otherwise, and students are asked to check their OU e-mail at 5 a.m. today to see if classes will be held.

 

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