In Detroit, at least one city union is talking about walking out because of Mayor Dave Bing's demands for pay cuts and benefit reforms. In Rochester, Oakland University faculty union members showed their disconnect from the fiscal realities afflicting this state by striking and shutting down classes since Thursday for the campus's 18,000 students. The faculty union has been upset with the university's demands for a pay freeze, reductions in health care options, cuts in summer pay and elimination of research leaves. It doesn't like a university request to hire non-tenure-track professors. The union also contends that the administration did not engage in serious bargaining until recently.
But some of the administration's demands shouldn't have been too much of a surprise. The school announced in June that it was imposing a pay freeze on its administrative staff and would be seeking less expensive health insurance packages as well.
The school also imposed an indefensible 9 percent tuition hike on students at a time when college costs are already a crushing burden for families with declining incomes.
Private companies have been freezing or reducing pay and benefits throughout the state. The United Auto Workers was forced to change work rules, create a two-tier pay system and cut certain benefits because of the financial difficulties of General Motors and Chrysler. Public employee unions shouldn't expect to be hermetically sealed from making similar concessions.
All public universities in this state have seen declining state funding during the past decade as a result of Michigan's recession -- which long preceded the national recession because of the collapse of the domestic auto industry. And Oakland has not been among the leaders in obtaining largesse from the Legislature. Its per-pupil funding in the current budget year from the state, at $3,585, is near the bottom of all public universities. It receives about $1,000 per student less than Ferris State University in Big Rapids.
Like all other state universities, Oakland still doesn't know what its 2009-10 appropriation will be, but it's not likely to be good news given the state's deep budget deficit.
The university says the faculty could have continued bargaining with the aid of a state mediator but opted to walk off the job. That's a disservice to the students -- who are already confronting rising tuition costs, declining personal income and an inability to find part-time work in a state with a 15 percent unemployment rate.
At some point, public employees, including university faculty, need to understand the financial hardships that other working and laid-off families have been dealing with for years. They need to adapt to the needs of taxpayers and students, not persist in trying to adapt the world to themselves.