More than a year and a half after filing an Unfair Labor Practice charge, the members of University of Rhode Island faculty union, URI/AAUP, finally got a ruling in their favor from the state’s Labor Relations Board. The Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education had delayed a ratification vote for two months and then rejected an agreement that they had previously authorized. The delay was accompanied by heavy lobbying by Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee and his staff. There was also testimony that URI president David Dooley said that approval of three year salary package WOULD result in a tuition increase in the third year. Although the Labor Board felt they could not enforce the failed contract, they did order the governing board to pay all of the union’s expenses. They were also ordered to recommence bargaining in good faith and “cease and desist” from revising cost estimates after authorizing its negotiating team to reach agreement.
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