Thirty faculty members blew on paper horns and carried signs that read “Faculty Deserve Respect, Fair Contract Now” as they gathered Monday in Red Square.

The group walked out of Red Square, through the halls of Miller Hall and into Room 210, where the faculty bargaining team was meeting.

Gary Pagels, American Federation of Teachers national representative and Western faculty union representative, said the last hour and a half of negotiations was more productive than the bargaining in the past 16 months.

“Enough is enough,” said Mike Mana, Western psychology professor. “There has to be a change here.”

On Friday, Eva Baharav, communication sciences and disorders professor, spontaneously organized the event and sent an e-mail to faculty encouraging them to participate in a sit-in Monday and Tuesday.

The purpose of the sit-in was to encourage the administration to settle a fair contract said Western history professor and faculty union steward Steven Garfinkle.

The faculty union and the administration bargained in Miller Hall. Red Square could be seen from the windows of the rooms where both teams bargained. Barahav declined to comment.

“The faculty are the heart of the university,” said Eileen Coughlin, spokesperson for the administration’s bargaining team and vice president for student affairs and academic support services. “I have a high degree of respect for the faculty at Western and the contribution they make.”

The administration’s and faculty’s bargaining teams sat in different rooms as state-appointed mediator Claire Nickleberry went back and fourth to communicate with both sides.

Professors walked out of the faculty bargaining room and into Room 218.

Coughlin shook hands with faculty as they crowded the room. Faculty told the administration’s bargaining team to settle a fair contract as soon as possible.

“This process is not an easy one,” Coughlin said. “We are re-evaluating all the ways [Western has] operated for years. We’re going to have to be patient with each other to get through that process.”

The administration would also like to settle a contract with faculty as soon as possible, Coughlin said.

“It’s about faculty applying pressure in ways that make the administration feel uncomfortable,” said political science professor Vernon Johnson.

Western senior Evan Bridges sat on a bench in Red Square and blew on a paper horn in support of the faculty.

Faculty deserve higher salaries because they worked hard to earn their degrees to become educators, Bridges said.

“[The administration has] clearly expressed for a number of years of getting faculty salaries up,” Coughlin said. “We really need to have faculty paid at competitive salaries.”

Western psychology professor Jeff Grimm said faculty are being cautious not to interfere with students’ education while encouraging the administration’s bargaining team to settle a contract with the faculty’s bargaining team.

“This is an opportunity to show the administration that faculty are not so polite and not so invisible,” art professor Garth Amundson said. Bargaining sessions have been scheduled for the rest of the school year.

If both bargaining teams can’t reach an agreement by the end of spring quarter, the teams will have to continue negotiating next fall.

When the administration and faculty bargaining teams agree on a contract, the faculty union will decide to vote on it.

But before deciding to pass the contract, the union will make copies of the proposal of the final contract for all faculty members. Faculty will need a minimum of two weeks to think about the contract and ask questions before reporting back to the faculty union.

The union will hold a public meeting for all faculty members to discuss and ask questions about the potential contract. Both teams are bargaining over faculty workloads, salaries and whether grievance and arbitration policies should continue to exist.

The union will not ask for feedback from faculty during finals week or the summer, Garfinkle said.

In order for faculty to have enough time to decide on the new contract, the administration and the faculty bargaining teams need to reach an agreement by mid-May, Garfinkle said.

Be first to comment on this article

Only registered users can post comments.
Please login or register.