Faculty at Kent State University in Ohio Plan Vote on Strike

Jul. 16–Kent State University faculty edged closer to the picket line Friday by agreeing to vote on authorizing a strike.

That could put them outside of classrooms when more than 20,000 students converge on KSU campuses for the new school year on Aug. 29.

“The schedule is published and we’ll start classes,” university spokesman Ron Kirksey said. “We’d still like to avoid a strike.”

Cheryl Casper, an economics professor and president of the Kent chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said ballots would be distributed to union members next Friday and that they’d vote over the next two weeks.

She said no one expressed opposition to authorizing a strike at a more than 2-hour union meeting on Friday.

If members OK a strike, union leadership would be required under Ohio law to give a 10-day notice to the State Employment Relations Board before proceeding.

Kirksey said it was premature to talk about contingency plans the university may be making to prepare for a strike.

In the meantime, the three unions now negotiating at Kent State are collaborating on a joint benefits proposal that they’ll give to the administration next week.

In addition to the tenure-track faculty Casper represents, nontenure-track faculty — also in the AAUP — landscapers and other staffers with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees are in negotiations.

For faculty with tenure or lifetime appointments, escalating health care costs have been a sticking point, Casper said.

If Kent State does strike, it would join a tiny fraction of AAUP chapters that have taken a similar course.

None have gone on strike so far this year. Last year, only Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti went on strike, and then for only seven hours.

Howard Bunsis, the AAUP president at the Michigan college, said the brief work stoppage was effective. He said EMU faculty got a “good” contract, keeping health care premiums at bay and winning 3.25 percent wage hikes for each of two years.

The Kent union rejected a contract offer earlier this month; the university rejected an independent fact-finder’s report last year.

Casper said she hoped to avoid a strike.

“Unfortunately this is one of the few options open to us,” she said.

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