Wayne State University professors have authorized their union leaders to call a strike if they can’t otherwise reach an agreement with the school.
The faculty union and school administration have been mired in contentious contract negotiations for months.
Union spokesman and political science professor Charles Parrish says the school has “slow-walked through the negotiations, and the strike authorization is meant as a wake-up call.
“We are not predicting we will strike, we are not predicting that we will not strike,” Parrish said. “The fact is this is just a weapon in our arsenal of trying to get this recalcitrant administration to come to an agreement with us.”
The two sides are set to go back to the bargaining table for the final time this year on Friday. Faculty members have worked this semester without a contract.
Wayne State’s administration has dropped an initial controversial proposal that would have effectively abolished tenure. But the two sides are still far apart on several major issues, including pay and online learning.
