[10/19/16] Faculty and coaches at more than a dozen state universities in Pennsylvania have been working for 477 days under an expired contract, and they’ve had enough. They’ve begun a historic strike over proposed raises and health care contributions.
Around 8:45 pm on Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education offered its “last best offer” to the Association of Pennsylvania State College & University Faculties (APSCUF), the union representing about 5,500 faculty and coaches at 14 universities in the state system.
APSCUF waited until the negotiation deadline set by the governor. At 5 am on Wednesday, they went on strike for the first time in the system’s 34 years.
“At 11:35 p.m., we made a last attempt to negotiate through back channels,” APSCUF President Dr. Kenneth M. Mash said in a statement. “We waited until 5 am. We are headed to the picket lines, but even on the picket lines, our phones will be on, should the State System decide it doesn’t want to abandon its students. They’ll know where to find me at 5:30 am. I’ll be outside the chancellor’s office at the Dixon Center on the picket line.”
The strike affects more than 100,000 students at Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester Universities. Students should still head to class unless their school tells them otherwise, but many classes are expected to be cancelled.
Negotiations had been ongoing since the APSCUF contract expired last June. The two sides had met for the last five days, but couldn’t reach an agreement.
“We were hopeful the union would accept the proposal so that our students could resume their normal routines, and go back to worrying about their next test rather than whether their professor would be in class,” State System spokesman Kenn Marshall said in a statement.
