SIU faculty union votes to authorize strike Feb. 3

The AssociatedPress

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Members of the Southern Illinois University faculty union voted to authorize a strike on Feb. 3 if progress isn't made on a new contract by then, union leaders said Wednesday.

Eighty-eight percent of the 346 union members who voted favored authorizing the strike, union officials said.

The 688-member union represents about 60 percent of all tenured and tenure-track faculty on the campus.

SIUC Chancellor Walter Wendler said he was disappointed in the vote, but was determined to reach an agreement.

"Nobody wanted it to come to this. A strike vote is detrimental to the university," Wendler said. "But I'm energized to get these negotiations completed and I'm optimistic we'll get somewhere."

There are 1,586 full- and part-time SIUC faculty, split between the Carbondale and Springfield campuses, Wendler said. The union represents 684 of the faculty members who work at the Carbondale campus, he said.

The professors, who earn an average $60,200 yearly, are demanding a 21 percent raise in salary and benefits over three years, as well as the addition of more professors to decrease the professor-student ratio on campus.

The union claims the school can afford it despite more than $10 million in state budget cuts this year.

Public university professors in Illinois average $66,000 annually.

University officials have offered a four-year package that includes no raise in 2002-2003 school year, and raises each of the subsequent three years tied to state appropriations, plus an additional 1 percent, SIU's associate vice chancellor for academic affairs Worthen Hunsaker has said.

For the first year of the raise, in 2004, the formula proposed by the university would likely yield a 5 percent raise, according to Hunsaker.

On Wednesday, union leaders said the voting showed the school professors mean business.

"Today's vote is an unmistakable indication of the faculty's resolve to achieve a contract that is fair, equitable, and that advances the interest of the university," said Morteza Daneshdoost, union president.

"(Eighty-eight percent) of the 346 members who voted this week said they will do what is necessary, even if it means a strike that would close the university," he said.

Talks are scheduled to resume on Friday.