I normally write columns about legal matters. Although this topic does have a legal action involved, it has less to do with the courts than it does with justice.
I’m talking about Ohio University’s handling of negotiations with the newly formed faculty union, United Academics of Ohio University, which represents about 800 full-time tenured, tenure-track, instructional and clinical faculty.
The university has done everything possible to nullify the union by slow-walking contract negotiations and starving out faculty who have not had raises for the past two years.
It is clear to me that the university administration and the board of trustees want NO faculty union representation. Period.
It appears that the university is stalling to try to get a favorable court decision to disband the union; to wear out faculty members who may tire of the battle; and to withhold salary increases, thereby causing financial hardships.
This, while the same university trumpets the importance and value of faculty to the university.
The story begins in March 2024, when the faculty filed unionization papers with the state after gathering a supermajority of faculty support. A year later, the faculty voted to form a union with over 70% in the affirmative. This would be the first faculty union in the school’s history.
At the same time, Senate Bill 1 became law without objections from any state university administrations. One of its provisions makes it illegal for faculty at a state university to strike. This gives another tool to fight unionization. The university can stall all they want and the faculty cannot strike.
The university officially appealed the faculty vote and voting process to the Ohio State Employment Relations Board. SERB unanimously dismissed the university’s objections and certified UAOU as the faculty union.
The university immediately filed an appeal and that lawsuit remains pending. Meanwhile, Ohio law mandates that parties participate in contract negotiations while the case is pending.
Official negotiations began Aug. 4, 2025. Over a year later, only 16 of the 27 proposed articles in the contract have any tentative agreements. None affect the university budget. The primary items yet to be negotiated are all financial.
The biggest issue outstanding is compensation and benefits.The union presented its proposal for compensation and benefits on Oct. 29, 2025. It took the university 301 days to respond with a counterproposal, on Aug. 26, 2026.
The faculty originally proposed a salary adjustment of about 8% over three years. The union says this would bring faculty pay “in line with our in-state peers.”
The university’s counterproposal, delivered on Aug. 26, was no compensation increase for 2025 and 2026 and only a 2% salary increase beginning in July 2027. Union members would receive a lump-sum ratification bonus in 2027, based on academic rank.
The union has indicated that the university’s proposal would leave “Ohio University faculty as the lowest paid faculty at a four-year public university in the state.”
The last faculty raise was for the fiscal year starting in July 2024. There have been NO raises since unionization.
Taking almost a year or more to respond to faculty proposals leads critics to say that the university is purposefully delaying the negotiation process.
Some critics have noted OU’s use of taxpayers’ money to bust the union. The Athens County Independent reported that the university spent $325,000 on outside counsel to fight the union between April 2024 and October 2025.
We do not have current figures.
Meanwhile, the university’s public relations machine keeps spewing out euphemistic statements about how well the process is going and how the university is operating in “good faith.”
The university’s FAQ on the union foreshadows future stalling by noting that “the most recent successful faculty unionization effort in the state of Ohio was Miami University. Faculty there voted to unionize in May 2023, and a tentative agreement was recently reached for a first contract.”
Apparently, Miami University took three years to negotiate a contract.
I predict that the university will continue snail-like negotiations and continue to try to convince the public that it is doing so for the sake of the university.
Bull.
The union can’t strike, so what leverage does it have?
It has the power of public opinion.
It needs to collaborate more with students and their parents, other Ohio labor unions, the media, and especially alumni to put pressure on the Board of Trustees and the administration to speed up the negotiating process.
If a few major donors would stand with the faculty, perhaps, the university’s arrogance would start to crumble.
More people inside the university need to speak up in support of the unionization effort. But people are afraid to speak. Numerous university colleagues have told me they can’t speak up because they fear retribution from Cutler Hall.
It is time that we speak truth to power and bring pressure on the university to do the right thing.
Otherwise, these bullying tactics will continue to thrive in Cutler Hall.
Tom Hodson
Athens, Ohio