Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
With Wright State University’s administration and faculty union still at an impasse, a deal that’s eluded both sides for years might not be what actually ends an ongoing strike. But, court action could.
Members of the Wright State chapter of the American Association of University Professors returned to the picket line on Monday in what may already be the state’s longest faculty union strike. Union members have been picketing at the entrances to campus along Colonel Glenn Highway for 15 days now.
“This is not the way that you want to make history in Ohio,” said Randy Gardner, chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education.
Following negotiating sessions last weekend, the strike is poised to go on even longer unless a compromise is made or the university files an injunction in the hopes that a court intervenes. In some cases, colleges have been successful when asking a court to order professors back into the classroom.
When asked Sunday whether she thought ending the strike would require court action, WSU president Cheryl Schrader demurred and instead said she hoped an offer extended to the union last weekend would become a contract.
“Certainly our hope is that tonight we have that opportunity to have that approval from the union membership,” Schrader said. “With that or without that we certainly hope our faculty come and join us in the classroom.”
Court action is a strategy that’s worked in the past though. At Michigan’s Ferris State University last fall and at Central Michigan University in 2011 judges ordered faculty back into the classroom, according to news reports at the time.
