State football coaches set secret strike date
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The union that represents coaches at Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities set a strike date, but declined to reveal what it is. The union’s eight-member executive council would give 48 hours’ notice before its 360 nonfaculty coaches walk off the job, said union president Pat Heilman Friday.
She revealed only that the strike, which would be a first among college coaches, would occur before the end of football season.
“There’s a lot of reasons we don’t want to release the date,” Heilman said. “We have a negotiating session scheduled for Tuesday. We don’t want to do anything that would jeopardize that, because we’re not working for a strike, we’re working for a settlement.”
A spokesman for the State System of Higher Education said the announcement of a strike date did not change its approach to the lengthening contract talks.
“We’re going into that meeting on Tuesday with the hope that we can make progress toward a settlement,” said the spokesman, Kenn Marshall. “And we’re planning that the seasons will open and hopefully they will continue uninterrupted throughout the fall.”
Heilman said the union considers the major remaining issues to be retroactive pay, parity for coaches with at least 10 years’ service and tying renewals to performance reviews. Marshall cited health-insurance copayments, salary and retroactivity.
If there is a strike, it would be the first of its kind among collegiate athletic coaches and would likely shut down the Division II Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, union officials said.
Its football season begins Aug. 26.
The coaches, whose previous contract expired in June 2004, are at Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester universities.
The union is the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties. The average salary for full-time assistant coaches under the expired contract is $33,950, and for full-time head coaches the average is $47,700.