A tentative contract agreement that averted a faculty strike last month on campuses of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education may be fraying.

The union, which represents about 5,500 faculty members on the system’s 14 campuses, is now threatening to back out of the agreement, complaining that some promises made in bargaining sessions have been omitted from final drafts of the contract.

According to the Associated Press, leaders of the union — the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties — have recommended that the rank and file reject the tentative contract. However, that recommendation will not officially be sent to union members until the final contract language is released, within the next couple of weeks.

According to the AP, the state system said it had not been informed by the union of any reversal.

The union was poised to strike in late June, as negotiations mired in deadlock, but a tentative agreement on July 3, after several daylong bargaining sessions, prevented the strike. —John Gravois