I don’t think this is exactly the “end” of faculty strike news because the union leadership has still not informed members any of the details of the deal and faculty have to vote on it. But practically speaking, it appears that the strike is settled and everything is back to normal around here. There are a few rumors worth noting. I’ve heard from reliable sources that faculty are going to get an “across the board” raise of over 3% for each of the two years of the contract and the interim president has promised to hire 25 or so faculty above and beyond the 47 the administration was trying to search this year as the result of a retirement buy-out plan.
I don’t know who “blinked” first in these negotiations, but I have to think it was the administration. After all, faculty were getting ready to go onto the picket lines Wednesday morning. I wasn’t crazy about the idea of being on strike, but I was certainly prepared and assuming that I wasn’t going to be teaching the first week or so of classes. There was a fair amount of area TV and other media coverage of the whole thing, and given the oodles of bad press the administration had already had to endure over the last year or so, I have to think that they didn’t want to create the photo op of faculty picketing in front of the “University House.”
I’m glad we settled, but damn, that would have been some rally….