Faculty Union Files Unfair-Labor-Practice Charge

An Associated Press article in The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the faculty union for Pennsylvania’s state universities filed an unfair-labor-practice charge with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board on Monday, alleging that an administrator used scare tactics in a recent letter to try to dissuade members from striking if current negotiations don’t lead to new contract by the time the current agreement expires on Saturday.

In the letter sent to the 5,500 State System of Higher Education faculty members on Friday, Thomas M. Krapsho, acting vice chancellor of human resources and labor relations, explains how pay and benefits would be affected by a strike. …

“It’s meant to scare and intimidate people,” union president Pat Heilman said.

Among other things, the letter inaccurately states that striking professors who teach summer school must forfeit all of their pay for those sessions, Heilman said.

“In some of these cases, you have people who have taught for three to four weeks before June 30,” Heilman said. “You can’t say they’re not going to get paid at all.”

A spokesman for the state university system denied the charge, saying the system is required to advise union members that state law bars them from receiving pay and benefits during a strike.

Negotiations between the union and the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education will resume on Thursday.