Court Order: Stop Picketing and Get Back to Work

Members of the Adjunct Faculty Association at Nassau Community College must stop picketing and get back to work as per a court order handed down Tuesday.

In response to an order to show cause filed by the college, NC Supreme Court Justice Margaret C. Reilly issued a temporary restraining order and injunction against the AFA and its members enjoining and restraining officers and members from, among other things, "engaging in a strike, or causing, instigating, participating in, encouraging, or condoning, threatening, or rendering support or assistance of any nature to calling a strike, a concerted stoppage of work or slow-down in the performance of any duties or employment at Nassau Community College."

AFA president Charles Loiacono told Patch picketing will continue between 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. "An injunction was served. We are not complying with it," he said.

AFA members went on strike after the college’s board of trustees rejected a proposed settlement that called for wage increases of 4.9 percent every year for eight years. NCC adjuncts have worked without a contract since 2010.

Dr. Jorge Gardyn, vice chair of the NCC board of trustees, told Patch that the contract issues need to be resolved at the bargaining table and not on the picket line.

"That is why we have been to arbitration, mediation and fact finding over the last three years with the AFA and tried to maintain open lines of communication," he said, adding that NCC's mission is to protect the 24,000 students that it serves.

Dr. Jorge Gardyn said the board did not feel their proposal served that interest.