[Updated (9/3/2016, 5:54 p.m.) with a statement from Long Island University]
Faculty members at Long Island University were locked out of the institution’s Brooklyn campus at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, according to the American Federation of Teachers and the LIU Faculty Federation, which represent full-time and adjunct professors at the university.
The dispute, over a contract that expired on August 31, hinges on a disparity in pay between the faculty at LIU’s Brooklyn campus and at its Post campus, in Brookville, N.Y. The union says the administration is also trying to avoid a vote of no confidence in the university’s president, Kimberly L. Cline, that was scheduled for Saturday.
The unionized faculty members are suspended from coming onto the campus and cannot teach or hold scheduled meetings with students there. They may lose their salaries and health insurance, a move the AFT says is “highly unusual in higher education, and may be unprecedented.” Classes are to begin September 7, and union leaders have said that students may encounter picket lines, according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
The union says the administration has “hired ‘strikebreakers’ to replace” the barred professors and has “assigned staff from within their own ranks.” It has started an online petition to demand an end to the lockout.
The university said in a statement that the Brooklyn campus’s faculty earns salaries above those at most peer institutions. It added that its wage proposal would guarantee an “average wage increase of 13.4 percent over the five-year term with some faculty receiving increases in excess of 22 percent. Additionally, the offer provides opportunities for promotional increases and variable compensation incentives.”
The statement continues: “The proposals set forth by the union to date would compromise the university’s ability to limit tuition costs for students and their families. The university is open to continuing discussions at any time, including throughout the weekend.”
