Some 400 unionized professors at Long Island University in Brooklyn learned on Labor Day Weekend they would not be allowed on campus until a contract agreement could be reached. In addition to locking out faculty, the LIU administration also suspended the professors’ health insurance.
Students joined faculty outside the building’s main entrances on Friday after staging classroom walkouts in protest.
Union members, whose five-year contract expired Aug. 31, are seeking improved benefits and salaries that match those of professors at LIU’s Brookville campus. The union wants to extend the current contract by five weeks and bring in a mediator. But LIU officials contends that could lead to a mid-semester disruption.
Negotiations were set to resume Monday afternoon.
