For the last few months, Illinois State University [ISU] and faculty union negotiators have had help from a federal mediator. Contract talks are ongoing, but the future of the mediation service is in doubt.
The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service provides mediation and conflict resolution services in the private, public, and federal sectors. It has mediated labor disputes around the country since Congress created it in 1947. President Donald Trump has issued an executive order to abolish the agency’s functions “to the maximum extent allowed by law.”
Keith Pluymers is a spokesperson for the United Faculty of ISU [UFISU], the bargaining unit for tenured and tenure-track faculty. UFISU is bargaining over its first contract with the university…