Daily Egyptian Managing Editor

SIU President Ted Sanders is acquiring the services of an outside consultant to advise administrators on developing a plan to keep the University open in the event of a faculty strike.

Richard Thorderson, former chief contract negotiator for the Wayne State University administration, is scheduled to visit campus April 24. Wayne State University is Carnegie I research school and an American Association of University Professors collective bargaining institution that has been plagued by four faculty strikes since 1986.

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Thorderson, an associate vice president at Wayne State, became the chief negotiator for the Detroit university in 1986 and has been on the administration’s negotiating team in the development of six faculty contracts the most recent in 1996.

Although he hopes SIUC faculty contract negotiations will not digress into a faculty strike, Sanders said he still must prepare for the worst. He said Thorderson will help the University develop a plan to deal with the possibility of a strike.

Well, I’ll tell you what, Sanders said. If I did not take the threat as real and a strike occurred, I’d be held accountable for not being prepared.

The ominous word strike has surfaced in union discussions since March, when faculty union members voted to authorize association leadership to first seek mediation, then binding arbitration, and then file an intent to strike. Faculty leaders can then consider action up to and including a strike.

Union leaders called for mediation Saturday and the administration joined their request on Monday. The mediator is scheduled to come to campus April 16.

Faculty leaders say a strike remains an extreme option, but association literature passed out in the March 23 picket called on readers to help us avoid a strike by contacting Sanders and members of the SIU Board of Trustees.

In addition to Thorderson’s visit, Sanders has directed key members of his staff to develop a plan to keep the University open.

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The key thing we want to assure is that students finishing their course of study can get their degrees in the event of a strike, he said. So people are already planning for the eventuality. [Thorderson] will share his experiences in an actual strike situation.

Margaret Winters, spokeswoman for the administration, said she was uncertain whether Thorderson will be meeting with the administration’s negotiating team.

As of press time, it was unclear whether or how much Thorderson is being paid to help SIUC develop a strike-contingency plan. Sanders said the University will pay for Thorderson’s travel and board.

Thorderson would not comment on his visit, saying that nothing was on paper yet. He also said he is uncertain what he will be doing at SIUC.

Marc Cogan, a Wayne State University associate professor of humanities and the Detroit school’s chief faculty negotiator in 1990 and 1996, has sat across the bargaining table and negotiated with Thorderson in five contracts. He said Thorderson should aid SIUC as he has been through four strikes at Wayne State University.

Wayne State University has weathered a half-day strike in 1986, a two-week strike in 1988, a three-day strike in 1990, and a brief strike in 1994. Cogan said the 1988 strike was long and very divisive and uncharacteristically long for faculty strikes.

He said that in 1992 the faculty and administration reached an agreement but only in the final hours before a strike. In 1996 an agreement was reached early on, but Cogan cites a variety of political reasons for the early agreement.

The previous administration, which has since been replaced, had one of the worst records with labor relations that I’ve ever heard of, he said. The two times we didn’t have to strike everybody was amazed.

Wayne State faculty are currently in the middle of a three-year contract.

Cogan cited the previous Wayne State University administration’s attitude toward faculty as the overriding reason for all of the strikes. He said that in negotiating sessions there would be little movement toward one another until August.

There was some movement but never enough, that’s why we ended up striking, he said. They were never willing to settle with us until we did go on strike.

Sanders said it is in the best interest of all parties to continue bargaining at the table.

Since its beginning, association members have refused to reveal the size of its membership numbers. Sanders said that less than half of the about 730 tenured and tenure-track faculty in the bargaining unit have their dues deducted from their University paychecks. Unionized faculty can either have union dues deducted from their paycheck or pay dues monthly.

Sanders does not know whether a faculty strike would cripple University functions.

Could they take enough faculty out to shut down the University? he asked. None of us will know that until it happens.