Legislation, Bargaining, and More

Session Summaries:  Although the 2013 Florida legislative session ended more than a week ago, its implications are still unfolding, and Gov. Scott may still veto some items.  Here are some preliminary summaries that came out early-to-middle of last week:

FSU’s Government Relations Office:  http://www.uff-fsu.org/art/FSU-SessionSummary2013May6.pdf

Florida AFL-CIO:  http://www.uff-fsu.org/art/FLAFLCIO-SessionSummary2013May.pdf

Florida Education Association:  http://www.uff-fsu.org/art/FEA-SessionSummary2013May7.pdf

Bargaining Resumes this Wednesday between the UFF faculty team and the FSU BOT team.  The teams will negotiate salaries, benefits, evaluation, and a variety of other issues that are important to faculty.  We will provide periodic updates as negotiations proceed. Continue reading

2013 Faculty Poll: Don’t You Forget About Me!

Hundreds of faculty members responded to the 2013 UFF-FSU Faculty Poll. Preliminary tabulations are available at:

http://www.uff-fsu.org/art/FacPoll2013ResultsPostNC.pdf

An expanded edition of the of the report that includes faculty comments that help to clarify and elaborate upon the quantitative results can be found at:

http://www.uff-fsu.org/art/FacPoll2013ResultsPostComments.pdf

More detailed results by college/unit and department/unit will be forthcoming for units for which the number of responses is enough to assure anonymity.

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Report to Faculty Senate, April 24th, 2013

By Professor Jack Fiorito, Senator and UFF-FSU Vice President

Consultation, Ballots, and Bargaining

Much has happened since our last meeting. Since the March Faculty Senate meeting we held a consultation with President Barron and Provost Stokes and other top administrators. The discussion was wide-ranging and cordial.

That same day we counted ballots in the UFF-FSU Chapter elections. As you probably know, Professor Jennifer Proffitt is our new President. I am pleased to be a Vice President once again.

Earlier this month, chief negotiators for the faculty and administration/trustees teams exchanged lists of contract provisions they intend to renegotiate this year. The lists are fairly lengthy. The teams will roll up their sleeves starting May 15th – negotiating new provisions to take effect July 1st or as soon as possible thereafter.

This Just In … April 2013 Faculty Poll Results

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Report to Faculty Senate, March 20th

Collective Bargaining

Our current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) expires on June 30th … all of it!  In other words, we will be doing what’s called “full book” bargaining.  We will begin negotiations in May and preparations for bargaining are already underway.  Between now and then both sides have to decide which issues they want to renegotiate.

Please help us represent you and other FSU faculty by taking the UFF-FSU poll next month and encouraging your colleagues to do so.

Meanwhile, we are working through implementation of the changes agreed in the fall.  Implementation is among the issues on the agenda for a consultation this coming Monday with President Barron and Provost Stokes. Continue reading

Report to Faculty Senate, Feb. 20th

Our annual faculty poll’s question on parking was removed last spring over my objection.  In view of the earlier presentation and discussion and prospects for more parking problems, I plan to argue strongly for putting it back this spring.

We are NOT bargaining, for a change.  You will recall that we concluded bargaining in October.  Discussions on implementation and other matters are expected at two consultations with President Barron, Provost Stokes, and other FSU administration representatives next month.  Bargaining for 2013-14 and beyond is scheduled to begin later this spring.  We will be seeking your views on bargaining in our upcoming poll and in other ways. Continue reading

CBA Implementation Updates (Jan. 10)

Salaries (the new Salary article’s Tentative Agreement [TA] can be found at http://www.uff-fsu.org/art/Art23TA.pdf):

1. Promotion raises, now at 12% and 15%, with back-pay to early August, were implemented in December (See Sec. 23.3(c) of the Salary TA).

2. Merit increases averaging 1% will begin to appear in paychecks on January 25th.  (See Sec. 23.5(b) [second "(b)", whoops!] of the Salary TA).

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Happy New Year! (Updates, Revised)

Some brief updates that may be of interest:

1.  Implementation of ratified changes to our UFF-FSU Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is proceeding.  At least some promotion raises, now at 12% and 15%, with back-pay to early August, were implemented in December, and at least some merit raises are slated for implementation by January 25th.  Implementation is also proceeding for other raises called for in the revised Article 23, but no information on dates has yet come to our attention (sorry).  Vice President McRorie sent a memo summarizing bylaw changes that will be needed in view of the new contract provisions on evaluation (Article 10) and for other reasons.

VP McRorie’s memo can be found at:

http://www.uff-fsu.org/art/McRorieBylawsMemo20121218.pdf

The ratified 2012 changes to our CBA can be found via the summary of changes at:

http://www.uff-fsu.org/art/BargainingUpdateNov2012.pdf

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Bargaining Update and Ratification Voting

UFF faculty and Administration/BOT teams concluded negotiations for fiscal 2012-13 in late Ocotober, including an agreement on Specialized (NTT) Faculty Reclassifications. Ratification voting for faculty is tentatively scheduled for December 4-5th. Revisions to the current contract are fairly extensive, and we encourage faculty members to begin their review of the tentatively agreed changes as soon as possible. A summary of the changes is available at the following link:

http://www.uff-fsu.org/art/BargainingUpdateNov2012.pdf

The summary includes links to the tentatively agreed revisions. More information on ratification dates, time, and places, and on voting procedures will be forthcoming soon.

Bargaining Update

UFF faculty and Administration/BOT teams reached tentative agreement
recently on salaries, promotion, and tenure for the 2012-13 contract year.  A
brief summary of changes follows.  Details on the tentative agreements are
available via links further below.  The teams will resume negotiations Wednesday morning at 9am, with benefits and the specialized faculty (NTTF) reclassification
project as main agenda items.

Changes in promotion and tenure include the following: Continue reading

Bargaining Update and Higher Ed Policies

Bargaining Update: Recently the Administration/BOT and UFF faculty teams reached tentative agreement on new language for Article 10 on Performance Evaluation and on Winter Break. Key changes in Article 10 include a more detailed five-point performance rating scale sought by the Admin/BOT and a ban on forced distributions sought by the faculty team. Some of these provisions will require significant bylaws revisions — sorry. Continue reading