AFT’s Weingarten on Wright State University Faculty Strike

WASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement after the faculty union at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio—a chapter of the American Association of University Professors—went on strike yesterday in response to the WSU board of trustees’ offensive decision to impose an unfair contract that slashes healthcare and guts academic freedom. Weingarten wrote to AAUP-WSU today to express the AFT’s support.
 
“The AFT and our hundreds of thousands of higher education members across the country stand with the Wright State faculty as they fight to protect the essential principles that lie at the heart of American higher education.
 
“We do so because nothing less than the future of Wright State is it stake. Academic freedom, shared governance and the free exchange of ideas on campus are the core of the university.

“This imposed contract takes direct aim at these essential values, denying faculty and students the teaching and learning environment they deserve. It is a stain on Wright State’s proud history, enabling the university to exercise unilateral power that, at its root, thwarts everything a university stands for. Academic decisions should be made for academic—not political, commercial or bureaucratic—reasons, and this contract fails that basic test.

“The result would be WSU faculty who are precarious, silenced, stretched thin, stripped of time for scholarly research, and desperately struggling to earn a living and afford healthcare.
 
“Striking is always a last resort—but when an employer stonewalls every attempt to negotiate in good faith and instead decides to impose its will, it becomes a righteous and necessary act. We will stand with the Wright State faculty and continue to raise our voice for as long as it takes for this grievous wrong to be righted.”