Failure to reach a tentative faculty contract settlement by March 1 prompted the SIUC faculty association to unveil a four-step plan that could culminate with the association filing an intent-to-strike notice.

The plan was agreed upon Wednesday night in a meeting open to all faculty union members. Union leaders say about 200 faculty voted to approve the plan.

The plan sets forth the following:It authorizes faculty union president Jim Sullivan and faculty negotiators to file for mediation.

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If mediation fails, Sullivan and the team will seek arbitration in reaching a contract settlement.

Should both measures fail, faculty union leaders will meet to file an intent to strike notice to the Illinois Educational Relations Board.

The association’s crisis response team will then meet to formulate plans for concerted actions by faculty, including but not limited to a strike.

Walter Jaehnig, faculty association media coordinator, said that a faculty strike remains an extreme option. He cautioned that filing an intent to strike notice does not mean a strike is imminent.

If you do file, you can’t strike until after 10 days, he said. But that doesn’t mean you will strike after ten days.

Sullivan said the plan may not be necessary if administrators and faculty meet more often for longer blocks of time and arrive at creative and collaborative agreements.

We will wait and see, Sullivan said. We will probably see over the course of the next several meetings if there is any concerted effort made to accelerate this process. We’ll then make judgment at the appropriate time.

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Sullivan said mediation will only be effective if some agreements have already been reached.

If required, mediation will serve to bring the parties together toward finalizing of the process, he said. If very few agreements of any kind have been reached then mediation will probably be a waste of time because if there is no agreements then there’s nothing to mediate.

Because negotiations have been ongoing since March 1997, Jaehnig said faculty have gone without a pay raise this year. He said negotiators on both sides should meet more often to reach an agreement and prevent another year from going by.

We don’t want to see another academic year go by without the faculty voting on a fair and equitable settlement, he said.

Originally the faculty union set a March 1 target date to reach a tentative agreement. Administrators said previously this was not likely and that longer and more frequent meetings may not necessarily be more productive.

The announcement of the four-part plan comes on the heels of a pending unfair labor practice charge, alleging administrators are bargaining in bad faith by freezing faculty searches to prepare for eventual faculty salary increases.

Sullivan said SIUC’s lawyers and faculty lawyers are working to settle the agreement before filing the charge.

The administration has discussed its willingness to discuss arriving at a resolution, but if this is not reached we will go forward with filing the unfair labor practice, he said.

In addition to the plan’s approval, Jaehnig said the faculty voted on actions to show solidarity for faculty and create awareness that faculty have been negotiating for a year now.

When asked about specific actions, Jaehnig said, Wait and see.