Point Park University has notified the newly formed faculty union on campus that it will not negotiate a contract with the union, saying the school remains convinced that faculty members are ineligible for representation.

		Previous coverage Point Park faculty vote for union by 3-1 margin (6/29/04)

The school's decision, which came to light yesterday, drew a stern response from the faculty leadership. And it could portend a legal fight over the matter before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Point Park President Katherine Henderson conveyed the school's position to the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh/Communication Workers of America in a letter shared with faculty yesterday. The union had approached her last month to start bargaining after full-time faculty members there voted by a margin of more than 3-to-1 to join the Guild.

The National Labor Relations Board, which certified the union after the vote, earlier rejected Point Park's argument that faculty members are ineligible for union protection. But Henderson, in a letter dated Wednesday, said school leadership continues to disagree with that ruling.

"It remains the position of Point Park University that its full-time faculty are managerial employees ... excluded from coverage under the National Labor Relations Act," she wrote. "Accordingly, the university respectfully rejects your request for bargaining."

In her letter, she pointed to an earlier ruling involving a union organizing effort at Yeshiva University.

Guild officials said yesterday they will file an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB in Pittsburgh, and the agency's regional director, Gerald Kobell, said he expects to lodge a refusal-to-bargain complaint with the full board in Washington, D.C. He said the matter could be headed to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.

"I'm very disappointed, but I'm not surprised," said William Breslove, president of the faculty assembly and a campus union organizer. "Katherine has said publicly and privately that she would fight this to the Supreme Court. I suspect she is going to get her wish.

"I think it might be the final nail in the coffin of any relations that [Henderson] has with the faculty. I've already gotten three phone calls from faculty who want to have a vote of no confidence in Katherine."

Henderson was en route to California and unavailable for further comment yesterday. Spokeswoman Ginny Frizzi said the decision followed consultations involving Henderson, school trustees and others.

"I believe that various options are being looked at, but I'm not aware of what the next step is going to be," Frizzi said.

In a tally made public June 28, Point Park's full-time faculty voted 49-14 in favor of joining the Guild. Four votes were contested, but they were not enough to influence the outcome.

The election occurred in May and early June after Kobell rejected Point Park's assertion that faculty members were managers. Point Park filed a challenge days later, prompting the NLRB to impound the ballots until the full NLRB board in Washington, D.C., voted 3-0 to uphold Kobell's ruling.

The Guild also represents approximately 290 employees at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Valley Independent of Monessen.

"Although the university has a right to request a review, it certainly will delay the process of bargaining with the faculty union who won the election decisively," said Kobell.