PSU Professors Threaten Strike Over Wages

EDUCATION 

By Kristian Foden-Vencil

Portland, OR  January 29, 2008 3:54 p.m.

Portland State University may have to find new teachers and cancel classes this spring -- following a strike threat from its professors.

Unions representing both full-time and adjunct professors have asked for mediation with the school. They say PSU has not been negotiating in good faith. Kristian Foden-Vencil reports.

Every two years, professors at PSU negotiate a new contract. The school won an 18 percent increase in state funds last year. So   adjust professor Kelly Cowan thought negotiations might run smoothly this year.

Kelly Cowan: “After negotiating in good faith for a significant amount of time, we feel that we’ve reached an impasse. Based on the last proposal they gave us, where the offer is less now than when we were first negotiating months ago.”

Cowan and others have been working without a contract for almost 10 months.

The professors are looking for a 12 percent increase in wages. But so far the school has said 8 percent -- and no more.

Cowan says 8 percent may seem like a lot. But he points out, the increase would be spread over two years.

Kelly Cowan: “So if you consider inflation over those two years, you may not actually gain a whole lot if it's an 8 percent or  less increase. That would probably barely cover inflation.”

The Portland State University Faculty Association has asked staff members to sign a petition registering their solidarity with professors. In less than a week, 500 people have signed up.

Cowan says teachers don’t want to strike, but they may have to.

Kelly Cowan: “We’re taking the possibility very seriously that we may have to respond forcefully to the aggressive tactics that the university is using.”

In PSU’s administration building, spokeswoman Julie Smith doesn’t see the negotiations so far as ‘forceful’ or ‘aggressive.’ She says the school is trying to sort out a difficult problem.

She says some long-term professors were hired at lower wages, while other more recently hired professors are better paid.

Julie Smith: “Each faculty position that we have. Some are way under market median and some are above and we want to have equity for all faculty.”

So Smith says, the across-the-board raises favored by the unions  are difficult.

Julie Smith: “That’s the basis of the proposals that we’re working off in negotiations with the unions.”

Smith concedes that negotiating contracts on an individual basis would be very time consuming – if not impossible.
She also knows the school only has a couple of months before mediation efforts could turn sour and a strike is called.  But she says the administration is just trying to improve the school.

Julie Smith: “We want students to be successful and we need to have enough faculty to teach all of our students and reduce our faculty-to-student ratio. So that’s one of the goals, is we want to increase the number of tenure track faculty.  At the same time we also want to provide our faculty competitive compensation through the comprehensive compensation package.”

The Portland State chapter of the American Association of University Professors has been in mediation for about a week. The next mediation session is slated for Wednesday.

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