Two faculty unions at Long Island University campuses in Brooklyn and at C.W. Post are on strike this week. The Long Island University Faculty Federation, the oldest faculty union at any higher education institution in the United States, has been on strike since Sept. 3 over management's plan to cut healthcare benefits and gut seniority. The C.W. Post Collegial Federation, which represents faculty at another of LIU's three campuses, went on strike Sept. 8 after negotiations with the administration broke down.

At the Brooklyn campus, the university administration proposed draconian options which would have essentially gutted healthcare benefits for faculty and rejected the union's offer to work with other local unions and the university administration to lower costs through consolidation of coverage. The university also rejected the union's proposals to ensure faculty time for scholarly research, refused to consider a step scale for full-time faculty based on rank or permit seniority and health benefit systems for part-time adjunct faculty.

After union members voted overwhelmingly to reject the university's offer of a new three-year-contract, they voted 165-30 to strike. "We refuse to sign a contract which jeopardizes the long-term interests not only of the faculty, but of the students and institution as a whole," says Jordan Kaplan, president of LIUFF, which represents 250 full-time and 300 part-time faculty members at the university's Brooklyn campus.

At the C.W. Post campus, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge against the university after administration negotiators proposed new conditions never before discussed with the union, which represents 324 faculty members at the Brookville campus.

As recently as Friday "we thought maybe we had a deal," reports Ralph Knopf, president of CWPCF. "We thought we were going to put the details together on Saturday, but instead the administration brought in new onerous proposals and revised other ones we thought we had settled and were off the table."

The strikes at both campuses are continuing, although the LIU Faculty Federation has resumed talks with the university administration. [Tim Shea]

September 11, 2003