After filing two charges with the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board against the Board of Regents for unfair labor negotiations, Sangamon State University faculty members will protest against the Regents at their NIU meeting Thursday.

Mitch Vogel, University Professionals of Illinois president, said Sangamon State UPI president Ron Ettinger will protest at 10 a.m. to urge the Regents to negotiate labor contracts in better faith.

Two separate unfair negotiation charges were filed against the Regents on Feb. 22 and March 9 by the SSU UPI chapter local No. 4100, Illinois Federation of Teachers, American Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO, said Lori Blankenhorn, office manager for the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board.

The March 9 charge against the Regents states the SSU Regents’ negotiation team refused to negotiate with the UPI union until a certain member was excluded, and the Regents also refused to give the union financial statements that were requested and needed for collective bargaining.

The Feb. 22 charge states the SSU personnel procedure determined bargaining unit members were worthy of a merit increase, but the monetary increase was not awarded to them. The charge states withholding a cost of living salary increase is a violation of labor relations rules.

Last year, SSU voted to have the UPI conduct collective bargaining as a means to negotiate SSU faculty salaries, Regents Chancellor Roderick Groves said. Since that time, the Sangamon State UPI union has been bargaining with the Regents to agree on a contract which would regulate relations between the SSU faculty and university management, Groves said.

Vogel said Ettinger will protest and make a statement near the Regents meeting at NIU because the Regents refused to let Ettinger formally address them at Thursday’s meeting.

Groves said the board did not let Ettinger address the problem at the last meeting as well because the Regents “encourage both sides not to bargain in public but to do their bargaining at the table,” Groves said.

“We’re not engaging in name calling and finger pointing in public. We are engaging in the collective bargaining process at the table,” he said.

“It (a public statement) would not be helpful to the normal collective bargaining process, so we are not encouraging public pronouncements on either side,” Groves said.

NIU’s UPI President Richard Beard said NIU UPI members will not formally protest at the Regents meeting.

Beard said NIU would have a direct line of communication to the Regents if it conducted collective bargaining. NIU now must rely on President John LaTourette to tell the Regents about faculty salary problems.