Dear Colleagues:
The most recent of the on-going weekly meetings between the BOT and UFF faculty bargaining teams was held Monday, June 5, and centered on the Salaries article. Neither team is proposing changes to Promotion Increases or to Sustained Performance Increases, and so the discussion centered on the other increase categories.
The session began with a BOT proposal offering Departmental Merit of 1.1% (up .1% from its prior offer), Deans’ merit of .25% (down .15%), Market Equity of $750,000 (up $250,000), and Administrative Discretionary Increases of 1%. This proposed package represents an increase of one-tenth-of-one-percent (.1%) over the BOT’s previous offer.
The UFF countered by coming down from 1.5% to 1.4% for Departmental Merit but not changing other elements (Performance increases at the inflation rate of 2.2%, Deans’ merit increases of .1%, Market Equity of $1.1 million, and Administrative Discretionary Increases of .5%). The UFF also retained its “Administrative Commensurate Compensation” proposal that ties faculty raises to Administrators’ raises.
In the next round, the BOT team said that until it knew where the UFF team stood in regard to the other open articles (Tenure, Discipline/Job Abandonment, Benefits, and Other Faculty Rights), some of which involve finances, it could not engage in any further Salary discussions. Because the UFF team is eager to make progress on Salary, it agreed to the BOT’s proposal of the previous week to make no changes to those articles, although the condition is that the UFF’s most recent Salary proposal be accepted. That is where negotiations were left for the week.
The UFF team notes that President Thrasher’s assessment that the University is facing an “outstanding” upcoming budget year is a reason to anticipate a better offer from the University this year.
Bargaining will resume on Wednesday, June 14 at 2:00 in the FSU Training Center. Faculty members are welcome.
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/wp/join/
All best,
Irene Padavic and Scott Hannahs, Co-Chief Negotiators, UFF-FSU