Faculty Strike Leaves University Library Struggling
“It is not a happy situation,” said Frank Lepkowski, associate dean and associate professor at Oakland University’s Kresge Library in Rochester, Michigan, after 12 tenure-track library faculty members went out on strike September 3 as part of an action called by the Oakland University chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
The Oakland Press reported September 4 that AAUP members were “angry at the university president’s $100,000-a-year raise” and had “rejected salary freezes and increases in health insurance payments, prompting continued picketing by members of the 600-person union.”
University spokesperson Tom Montgomery told American Libraries that classes have been cancelled until further notice as a result of the strike; they were scheduled to have begun on the day it was called. He said that “the university is working with a state appointed mediator who offered the faculty an option to continue teaching while negotiations proceed. The faculty rejected that option and chose to strike.” Montgomery explained that administrators canceled classes “as a consideration to students who travel to campus and might otherwise find that their instructors are not present to conduct class.”
The Press also reported that chemistry professor and OU AAUP Chapter President Joel Russell said at a September 3 rally on campus that AAUP and the OU administration still haven’t settled on a contract and that the faculty is ready to continue the strike. He invited the hundreds of faculty and student supporters who attended the rally to picket on campus until an agreement is reached. “The pressure is on them,” Russell said, noting that OU has not budged from most of its original concession demands, which also include less pay for summer classes, no increases in support for research travel, and new clauses on intellectual property rights on research. “They haven’t bargained with us at all,” he said.
“The university regrets that it has not been able to reach a contract agreement with the faculty and that the resulting strike will be disruptive to students and the entire university community,” a university press release stated. “The university hopes to reach a feasible and equitable settlement shortly. The difficult economic circumstances we face, however, necessitate the university be extremely prudent.”
Lepkowski told AL that the remaining 21 members of the Kresge Library staff are keeping the library open all of its regularly scheduled hours. He noted that remaining staff are not members of the AAUP bargaining unit, although they are a combination of administrative professionals with the MLS and clerical-technical paraprofessionals who can provide reference-desk service. “We’re trying to serve the students who are here on campus, and we’re helping them as best we can,” he said, “but it would be a lot better if we were fully staffed.”
—Leonard Kniffel, American Libraries Online Posted on September 4, 2009.