Sangamon State University faculty filed an unfair labor-practice action against the university because President Durward Long will not release requested budget information.

The action was filed against SSU and not the Board of Regents because the Board lets SSU make employer decisions, said Union Grievance Officer Nina Adams. Actions must be filed against the employer, Adams said.

The action was filed with the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board. The IELRB, which deals with union problems, was formed when Illinois established a collective bargaining law in 1983, said Mitch Vogel, University Professionals of Illinois president.

The IELRB “settles employer/employee disputes,” Vogel said. The SSU union has filed actions about a dozen times.

“The union recently filed an unfair labor practice action and we won,” Vogel said. “The board actually said the (SSU) president was lying.”

The union has filed its latest action to get budget information that Long is withholding, he said.

“According to the Freedom of Information Act, we should be able to get the information we requested,” he said. “There’s certain budgetary information we need.”

“We haven’t been able to get answers” about the budget, said Ron Ettinger, UPI Local 4100 president.

“They (SSU) were not bargaining in good faith” on compensation for faculty that does administrative work, Adams said. The union already agreed with SSU to bargain on compensation, she said.

Another action was filed on Oct. 7 because SSU “gave us their first and last salary offer and that’s illegal,” she said.