by Tom Castellano, John Magney, and Mary Lamb

Many SIUC community members are concerned about the collective bargaining process taking place between the administration and the SIUC Faculty Association. The sparse media coverage indicates negotiations are not going well. For an explanation, please review the administration contract offer (http://www.siuc-faculty-assoc.org). It is clearly a regressive document

SIUC faculty voted for collective bargaining for a number of reasons. Faculty salaries lagged behind those of our colleagues at peer institutions. SIUC administrative costs had escalated (surpassing the costs at peer institutions) while funds devoted to academic programs declined. Key administrative decisions were often being made without any meaningful faculty involvement, and the quality of educational programming at SIUC continued to erode. For many faculty, the decision to vote for collective bargaining was seen as the most promising way to help remedy these problems and to move this University forward.

Advertisement

The key administration response to the faculty vote has been the hiring of a Chicago law firm Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather, and Geraldson to represent it in contract negotiations. We think the choice of law firm is revealing. Here is what has been written about this firm in a study of a labor strike at Yale University in 1984.

To avoid the unpleasantness witnessed at Yale in 1984, we urge our friends and colleagues in the administration to take a more reasonable approach at the bargaining table, and to begin working more cooperatively with us to make SIUC the best it can be.

Tom Castellano, assistant professor, administration of justice

John Magney, assistant Professor, applied Science and arts

Mary Lamb, professor, English