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BY CALEB HALE
The Southern

CARBONDALE - Four Illinois Education Association unions are taking legal action against Southern Illinois University over what representatives call "bad faith bargaining" by the Carbondale campus administration.

The unions announced Monday they have filed an unfair labor practice and are seeking a complaint from the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board. The ULP, they said, resulted from a breakdown in negotiations in March, when the administration presented a final offer for new contracts with three of the unions and ended mediation with a fourth.

"University officials have not dealt with any of the unions fairly in their negotiations," regional IEA representative Jim Clark said in a prepared statement. "These employees have a right to a fair voice on campus. The surface bargaining and unilateral imposition of a final offer by the administration is not fair, nor is it legal. We believe these ULP charges will sustain that."

Chancellor Rita Cheng declined to comment on the matter Monday, but SIUC spokesman Rod Sievers said the administration has been aware of the likelihood the unions would file charges sooner or later.

"This really wasn't unexpected; it's part of the process," Sievers said. "We'll let it be sorted out by the next step, by a judge."

IEA represents the Faculty Association, the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Association, Graduate Assistants United and the Association of Civil Service Employees on campus. More than 3,400 university employees are represented by the unions, Clark said.

In addition to the main charge, three of the unions are also alleging bad faith on the administration's part in making represented employees take four furlough days this fiscal year. The university announced the furloughs in the fall, but the IEA unions resisted accepting them for most of the year.

Sievers said most, if not all, employees have taken their required furlough days. If not, he said, they have until the end of June to take them.