Oregon Public Broadcasting

The faculty at Portland State University may be one step closer to declaring a strike…the most recent round of contract negations has reached a stalemate.  Bilal Qureshi has more.

The PSU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors has been complaining for months about excessive workloads and low salaries.  Now after almost a year of contract negotiations with the administration, the union has declared an impasse, opening the door to a strike.

Gary Brodowicz has been a professor at PSU for more than twenty years. He’s also president of the Union.

Brodowicz: "When I mention the word strike, you see the fear in student’s faces and you also see the
faculty say, 'Jeez we don’t want to do this to the students because they’re going to be graduating at the end of spring.' But it does allow us by declaring impasse to put some pressure on the administration."

The University says it has received the union’s announcement and hopes to resolve the issue through negotiations.