Executive Council approves arbitration for NTTF layoff grievances

At its meeting on Thursday, May 22, the PSU-AAUP Executive Committee (EC) approved sending ten grievances to arbitration. The grievances are all based on layoff notices that were issued to non-tenure track faculty (NTTF) on continuous appointment. The grievances allege that PSU failed to comply with Article 18 of the contract, which requires that the layoff of continuous appointment NTTF be the result of a curricular or programmatic change. There is no evidence that curricular or programmatic changes have occurred to justify the layoffs. The grievances also allege that the layoffs did not go through applicable shared governance processes, as required by Article 18.
 
The grievances went through the three-step grievance process, where they were denied at each step. They now go to arbitration, where they will be heard by an independent arbitrator, whose decision is final. 
 
Several of the grievants attended Thursday’s meeting, and after the EC heard statements from them, a motion was made to take the grievances to arbitration. The motion passed unanimously.

What’s at stake is the very question of what counts as shared governance— and whether we can hold on to the rights of shared governance we have. AAUP’s position throughout has been one of bolstering shared governance and rejecting unilateral administrative decision making.