SPRINGFIELD—The NIU and Illinois State University presidents are pushing for a strike at Sangamon State University to further their own union-busting agendas, union officials at SSU are charging.

But NIU President John La Tourette insisted the allegations are outrageous.

SSU faculty and union members testified at a House Appropriations Committee II meeting on Tuesday.

Ron Ettinger, president of University Professionals of Illinois Local 4100 said NIU President John La Tourette and ISU President Thomas Wallace are “trying to make SSU look bad and make their universities look better.

“The presidents are concerned with keeping universities union-free,” he said.

Ettinger said La Tourette and Wallace are “pushing SSU into a strike.”

“La Tourette and Wallace are more involved in the negotiations than perhaps the bargaining team,” he said.

Ettinger said Regents Chancellor Roderick Groves has not been involved in the negotiating between SSU faculty and administration.

“The (Regents) Chancellor is being held hostage by the university council of presidents,” Ettinger said.

La Tourette said he has no interest in the collective bargaining at SSU.

“I have not been involved in the collective bargaining at SSU. This is an argument that suggests the negotiations are not being held in good faith. It is preposterous and absurd,” La Tourette said.

Union grievance officer Nina Adams said NIU and ISU have reallocated funds in the past to advance faculty salaries. SSU, however, has not been allowed to move existing funds to increase faculty salaries.

“The three campuses were fairly close in faculty salary, but the difference is NIU and ISU are allowed to reallocate their funds while SSU is not,” she said.

In fiscal year 1987, faculty salaries were roughly equal to NIU and ISU faculty salaries, Ettinger said.

“It’s a manipulation in budget,” Adams said. “There is a deliberate anti-union bias.”