The BOT and UFF bargaining teams met on July 5 after a BOT-imposed three-week break in negotiations. The discussion was solely about the Salaries article. As has been the case for several weeks, the unresolved categories are Performance Increases, Departmental Merit Increases, Deans’ Merit Increases, Market Equity Increases, Administrative Discretionary Increases, and the UFF’s proposed Administrative Commensurate Compensation Increases. As has been the case all along, neither team is proposing changes to Promotion Increases or to Sustained Performance Increases.
The session began with a UFF presentation contesting the claims of a BOT PowerPoint presentation at the last session purporting to show that funding for faculty salaries is limited by legislatively-imposed criteria and that FSU faculty are already well-compensated compared to other public institutions.
The upshot is that FSU salaries are not, in fact, sixteenth in the nation (on par with UC-Berkeley and UT-Austin) and that FSU has several funding sources to draw on for faculty salary increases.
The BOT team responded by offering a salary proposal that differed only slightly from its previous one: instead of 1.1% in Departmental Merit, it proposed 1.25%. Thus, its latest proposal looks like this:
Performance: 0.25%*
Departmental Merit: 1.25%
Deans’ Merit: 0.25%
Market Equity: $750, 000
Admin. Discretion: 1%
* plus 0.10% in lieu of Market Equity for certain Specialized Faculty
As before, this proposal means that–accounting for inflation–many faculty members would see their real earnings reduced.
The UFF team countered by coming down slightly on Departmental Merit, from 1.4% to 1.25%. But it retained its position on all the other components. Hence:
Performance: 2.00 %*
Departmental Merit: 1.25%
Deans’ Merit: 0.1%
Market Equity: $1 million
Admin Discretion: 0.5%
* plus 0.20% in lieu of Market Equity for certain Specialized Faculty
The UFF also retained its “Administrative Commensurate Compensation” proposal that ties faculty raise percentages to Administrators’ if Administrator raises exceed those negotiated for faculty.
The session concluded with plans for future meetings. The UFF is disappointed that the BOT cannot meet next week. The next meeting is scheduled for July 17. This means that over a 4.5-week period (during which the UFF team was available), we will have met only once. The reason for our concern is that we want to see raises in August paychecks, a possibility that becomes more remote as the weeks tick by. Be assured that the UFF will seek retroactivity for any raises that are eventually negotiated.
Bargaining will resume on Monday, July 17 at 1:00 in the FSU Training Center. Faculty members are welcome. The address is 493 Stadium Drive, and it can be accessed from Jackson Bluff Rd. or southbound Stadium Drive. Parking is plentiful.
We specifically and enthusiastically invite faculty to come to the July 17 session, even if the visit is brief. If we are going to negotiate a better deal, the Administration needs to know that faculty do not believe the claim that salaries are high.
Future sessions will be held on July 26 and August 9 at 1:00 at the Center.
The key to a strong Collective Bargaining Agreement is a strong membership base, so if you are not a member, please join! https://uff-fsu.org/join/
All best,
Irene Padavic and Scott Hannahs, Co-Chief Negotiators, UFF-FSU