Nov. 20, 2015
For Immediate Release
For more information, contact:
Kathryn Morton — 717-236-7486, Ext. 3007
Negotiations between the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties and the State System still have not yielded a new contract.
APSCUF’s negotiations team met this morning with the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and put forward two offers. One was a revised one-year contract compromise. The other included an updated proposal on retrenchment as part of a long-term contract.
After about an hour-long caucus, the State System rejected both.
“We agree with the State System’s head negotiator when he said the gulf between us may be as large as the Grand Canyon,” said Dr. Jamie Martin, APSCUF’s vice president and head of its negotiations team. “The System owes it to its students to provide the best-quality learning environment. That can only happen if the faculty are given a fair contract.”
Talks slated to continue Monday, Nov. 23, were canceled. APSCUF has offered to meet next month, if the State System has a new proposal to discuss. Otherwise, negotiations will continue in January.
Faculty and coaches at Pennsylvania’s 14 publicly owned universities have been working without a contract since their most-recent collective bargaining agreement expired June 30.
At negotiations in early November, the State System rejected the one-year compromise APSCUF put forth in mid-October. It countered with a proposal that would cost faculty members thousands of dollars more for healthcare, which APSCUF immediately declined.
APSCUF represents about 5,500 faculty and coaches at the State System universities: Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania.