Long Island University's Brooklyn campus, in a contract fight with the faculty union, tells 400 professors not to come to work and cuts them off from health insurance.
Hundreds of LIU faculty union members were told that their services were no longer required and that their positions, their health insurance, and their campus email accounts were being cut off. Classes for the semester started Wednesday.
The university imposed a lockout, a labor tactic in which current employees are replaced by new employees. A lockout differs from a strike, in which a union opts not to work as a tactic to get a better contract. In this case, the faculty union and the administration have been engaged in negotiations and there was no strike.
The university has two main campuses on Long Island and in Brooklyn. LIU has had labor disputes in the past, including a weeklong strike in 2011 by faculty members at the Brooklyn campus. We do not know of another case where a university locked out its own union faculty members.
The main issue is an inequity between the pay levels of faculty members at the two main LIU campuses. Currently, half of Brooklyn faculty members are paid less -- in many cases significantly less -- than their counterparts at Post, says the union, which is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers.
This was the latest news updated released by the university: http://www.liu.edu/Brooklyn/About/News/Campus-Press-Releases/2016/Septe…
In the spirit of transparency, in the past, I have lectured at the better-paying campus.