Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
The Wright State University board of trustees took no action after meeting in private today to discuss the strike and the possibility of a deal.
Trustees met for nearly three hours in executive session today but convened the meeting without taking any vote. Around 100 or more students showed up to the 2 p.m. board meeting today to protest the lack of an agreement.
Board chairman Doug Fecher emerged from the meeting and reiterated the board’s offer to negotiate a successor agreement that could take effect immediately once agreed to. Fecher again offered to clarify some of the terms of employment in order to reassure union members who might be concerned.
The union has already turned down that offer and union president Martin Kich has said they want to negotiate a current contract and not the next contract. The lack of a deal today means the four-day strike will almost certainly stretch into next week.
The strike, which started Tuesday, is the Wright State chapter of the American Association of University Professors’ response to the WSU board of trustees decision on Jan. 4 to implement the final terms of employment for the union.
The terms included moving faculty union members into a “uniform” health care plan, maintaining current rules of retrenchment, including no pay raises and allowing faculty to be furloughed as part of “cost savings days.” The union has taken issue with the furlough policy, changes to health care, new provisions for promotions and tenure appointment, workload and a merit pay system.
During today’s board of trustees meeting, the AAUP-WSU released a statement saying their members would be back on the picket line come Monday.
