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PSU-AAUP members and colleagues,
We’re all looking for silver linings in this time of austerity’s reign over the campus news cycle. I’m happy to send along the good news that PSU has changed its mind about our NTTF colleagues whose layoffs last academic year violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement. All ten grievants will be offered reinstatement to the continuous appointment positions they held before the June layoffs, and all ten will be granted the back pay the make-whole remedy allows them. In the next two weeks, we will be negotiating the details of back pay and return dates and other matters of make-whole logistics, but depending on their own timelines and needs, we expect to have our colleagues back on campus quite soon. All of this feels to me like real progress and a real source of solace and positivity that makes winter term seem a good bit brighter.
Contrary to the President’s blog post title, it’s important to note that this is not a “settlement.” Our members won a binding arbitration in which the arbitrator ordered reinstatement and a make‑whole remedy, and PSU is now moving belatedly toward implementing the remedy. As far as “settlement” is concerned, the university’s counsel continues to hold to the position that the CBA does not allow an arbitrator to order reinstatement. PSU’s counsel is depicting these particular reinstatements as a voluntary decision, hoping to avoid a concession that Article 28 allows make-whole remedies that include reinstatement. PSU-AAUP continues to firmly insist that the university’s position is built on an incorrect assessment of the language of the contract and a misreading of that language’s relation to its bargaining history and contractual context. There is an immense amount at stake in this question. If the university gets to impose its interpretation on PSU-AAUP’s CBA, this would significantly strip away tenure, continuous appointment, and other job‑security protections. The entire framework of job security and academic freedom offered by the CBA would become dependent on the university’s good will rather than the power of our collectively bargained contract. The union has asked the arbitrator to further rule on these questions, and I’m optimistic that the ruling will reassert our and the arbitrator’s prior positions on the matter. I’m hopeful too that a ruling will have an impact on future cases in which the interpretation of Article 28 might otherwise become contentious.
Contract matters aside, it’s a huge relief to see our colleagues freed from this excruciating legal limbo, and I can’t wait to welcome them back to campus. This is such a reaffirming and important win for them and for the bargaining unit. We can directly credit their resolve and the collective support of members and allies across campus. I want to thank our reinstated members for all that they’ve given and all that they’ve endured so gracefully, and I want to thank and congratulate all of you for contributing to this outcome and being a part of our collective work in this situation.
We have a lot confronting us, and I’d love this win to serve as a marker of more good things to come, even when narratives of decline and despair seem lined up against us. Collectively, we still have so much agency and so much opportunity to guide the Bridge to the Future scenario to the best possible outcome for PSU and for our students and colleagues. Above all, there are many ways we can continue to demand that the changes made in the Bridge and PIVOT plans do as little harm as possible to our community, our mission, our future, and the impact this university has on so many students and on our city. We owe it to ourselves and to so many others to demand over and over that, in the decisions to come, we put PSU on a clear path to growth and prosperity. And we can have an outsized influence on these decisions by making our collective power felt, particularly by turning out in significant numbers at the upcoming Board of Trustees meeting(1/30, 9:30am), the February 2nd Faculty Senate meeting, and the State Capitol rally and lobby day in Salem on February 5th. Every single commitment, every single organized conversation, every single effort at political and media outreach, every single mode of speaking out and talking back, every single way we can put our energies into this moment-- all of these acts matter, and all of them add up to a significant impact on what emerges at PSU later this winter and beyond.
In solidarity, gratefully,
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