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>>Oakland University faculty strike unresolved – AAUP and OU administration still at bargaining table (posted Sept. 5)

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>>Video: Interview with Karen Miller, vice president of OU’s AAUP chapter (posted Sept. 4)

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All classes at Oakland University have been canceled since Thursday, the first day of classes, until further notice. The faculty are on strike because OU administration and the faculty union still haven’t agreed on faculty contracts for 2009-2012.

The strike was officially announced at 12:30 a.m. after the 2006-2009 contract expired at midnight Thursday, by the American Association of University Professors, the union which represents about 600 faculty members.

Since Thursday morning, some faculty and a few students have been picketing on campus entrances with signs and fliers, and some have been informing others through Facebook and AAUP’s website.

Joel Russell, chemistry professor and AAUP president, said at a rally on campus at 3 p.m. Thursday that AAUP and the OU administration still haven’t settled on a contract, and that the faculty are ready to continue the strike and invited the rally attendees — hundreds of faculty and student supporters — to picket on campus until an agreement is reached.

“The pressure is on them,” Russell said. “Our negotiator said we could settle by Monday. They should [settle by then] if they want to keep Oakland the same Oakland it’s been.”

He said that after the union members authorized the strike Wednesday night around 8 p.m. and the negotiation teams went back to bargain, there has been progress made on some small issues, but still nothing settled on some of the bigger issues the faculty are pushing for.

“We settled one major issue — turning OU into a community college is gone,” he said, meaning that OU’s negotiating team is no longer insisting on hiring more fixed-term faculty instead of tenure-track faculty in the future, according to AAUP’s negotiating team.

According to AAUP Vice President Karen Miller, the issue was a major point of contention.

Russell said that OU has still not budged from its original position on other major issues, including OU offering faculty no raise for the next three years, lower health care benefits, less pay for summer classes, no increases in support for research travel, new clauses on faculty’s intellectual property rights on research, and not providing the union with information on how to include the upcoming OU William Beaumont School of Medicine faculty into the union.

“They haven’t bargained with us at all,” Russell said.

Because of this, AAUP filed an unfair labor practice suit with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission.

“OU doesn’t comment on ongoing contract negotiations or ongoing legal matters,” said OU spokesperson Ted Montgomery. 

Some teachers crossed the picket line and taught morning classes which began at 8 a.m., amid other teachers protesting at campus entrances and most teachers not in classes.

But then OU sent an e-mail to all students at 10:30 a.m. saying all classes have been canceled due to the strike, and classes haven’t been held since. In a previous e-mail on Sept. 2 at 9 a.m., OU asked its students to attend classes even if there was a strike and to leave after 15 minutes if the instructor isn’t there.

Other university resources such as the library and career services are to remain open, and all “welcome back” week events are scheduled to go on. 

Students said they had mixed feelings about classes being canceled because they’re paying for the classes and had gotten a 9 percent tuition raise this year, but many present at the rally said they support the faculty’s cause.

“It’s certainly a sacrifice I’m willing to make,” said Andrew Poterek, a senior physics major who had scheduled classes canceled Thursday, and had been picketing with the faculty. “I’d rather make up the missed work later than have them lose on things like health benefits.”

Junior Ilyssa Beltzman said she also had classes canceled, and said because she had a 9 percent tuition raise, she’d rather that the teachers get what they need, and is okay with a few classes being canceled because she pays for credit hours, not lecture hours.

“But if this goes on till next week though, we want a tuition reimbursement,” Beltzman said.

“I fully agree on what they’re doing and support them 110 percent,” said senior Stephanie Hartwig.

Daniel Clark, associate professor of history, was one of the ones picketing, and said he, like other faculty members, will be “staying in touch” with students throughout the strike.

“We want to make sure Oakland survives… with the best education for Oakland students,” Clark said. “We have to take the long view. We would rather be teaching.”