CARBONDALE -- Not all SIU faculty are happy with the union's handling of negotiations or its decision to strike. Some twenty professors have formed a group called Faculty for Sensible Negotiations. They say it's time for every member to have a say in what the union does.

Members of FSN say they don't want to get rid of the faculty union. They just want professors to be able to decide if the union is the right fit for their needs. They say it's a choice many haven't had since 1996, when the union formed.

Almost every employee that works at Southern Illinois University is represented by a union whether they like or not. For some tenured professors, their dislike of the faculty union has been growing for years.

"We just got to the point, we decided we had to take some kind of action," says Mike Eichholz.

And recent animosity in contract negotiations has set a new low.

"All of us have been associated with other universities and campuses across the country, and this is by far the worst I've seen it, that any of us has ever seen it in a university," Eichholz exclaims.

So Eichholz and a small group of professors, known as Faculty for Sensible Negotiations, decided to see who else was fed up with certain union tactics. Out of 670 faculty members contacted, nearly 140 responded in support. That's encouraged FSN to move forward with an official vote to see exactly what kind of representation faculty members want.

"Highly qualified faculty are limited at Universities, so we have the opportunity to move somewhere else," says Eichholz. "It's not like a laborer that could be replaced and they could bring somebody off the street to replace them, and so we really don't need, in a number of our opinions, this collective bargaining agent."

The group is sending each SIU professor a signature card asking if he or she wants a new union, to decertify the Faculty Association, or to maintain the association. Eichholz says it's a choice that's long overdue for SIU faculty.

Eichholz says the two primary difference between the union he's pushing for and the faculty association are: there would be no requirement to pay dues in order to vote in the union, and there would be no state or local affiliation like the Illinois Education Association.

If FSN gets 30% of the faculty to sign the cards, then an official vote can take place.