Dear FSU Colleagues:
On Monday, July 1, the UFF team presented the BOT team with our latest salary proposal, and after a caucus, the BOT team proposed a salary counter proposal along with Article 10 (Performance Evaluations), which once again includes PTR, and a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that counters our Article 20 (Grievances and Arbitration) proposal from 6/27. They presented their proposals as a package deal, meaning they bundled the remaining outstanding proposals together. Details are below.
Regarding Article 10 (Performance Evaluations), the BOT team had agreed on Thursday, 6/27, to separate the Post-Tenure Review (PTR) process into an MOA, but by Monday, they changed their position due to a very unfortunate and problematic decision by the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC); the full commission completely reversed the PERC hearing officer’s recommendation that the FSU administration committed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) by implementing PTR without bargaining the regulation. As such, the BOT team reasoned that they have an obligation to move forward with the Board of Governors’ (BOG) draconian PTR proposal that essentially reduces tenure to five-year contracts by inserting it into the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) even though it violates several other articles, including the tenure and academic freedom articles. We are consulting with our legal team to determine the next step(s).
For Article 20 (Grievances and Arbitration), the BOT team proposed an MOA that outlines a one-year pilot program that would allow for a Step 3 mediation ONLY for suspensions, demotions, and terminations that did not go through the process outlined in Article 16 (Discipline). While we certainly appreciate that the administration is willing to try mediation, most grievances — as we explained multiple times — are not about discipline, but rather in response to other violations of faculty rights spelled out in the CBA. Please see our last bargaining report for a list of examples, including disputes over assignments, starting salaries, or supervisor overreach, among others.
For Article 23 (Salaries), the chart with each team’s ninth salary proposal is below. Places where each team changed their previous offer are in bold.
| Bargaining Salary History 2024 | UFF 9 | BOT 9 |
| Promotions | 12/15% | 12/15% |
| Sustained Performance Increase (SPI) for Specialized Faculty at the top rank (now every 5 years) | 3.00% | 3.00% |
| PTR (Associate Professors who are assigned Meets Expectations) | $5,000 bonus | $4,000 bonus |
| PTR (Associate Professors who are assigned Exceeds Expectations) | $6,000 bonus | $6,000 bonus |
| PTR (Professors who are assigned Meets Expectations) | 5.00% | 3.00% |
| PTR (Professors who are assigned Exceeds Expectations) | 5.00% + $4,000 bonus | 5.00% |
| Performance Increase (for all faculty who received higher than Official Concern on most recent annual evaluation) | 3.00% | 2.00% |
| Departmental Merit (based on criteria developed by faculty) | 1.20% | 0.80% |
| Deans’ Merit | 0.20% | 0.20% |
| Market Equity | $700,000 | $500,000 |
| Administrative Discretionary Increases | 0.80% | 0.80% |
A few notes regarding salaries:
· Despite our reservations regarding differentiating between Meets and Exceeds because there were no clear PTR criteria, we proposed smaller salary differentials between Meets and Exceeds.
· The UFF team proposed that all Professors who were eligible to receive SPI this year should receive it if they hadn’t gone through PTR. The BOT team is proposing that the Professors who were eligible for SPI this year can go to the front of the line for PTR this upcoming year.
· The BOT team once again struck our proposal that no faculty member at a full FTE should be paid less than $44,000, yet again stating that faculty paid below $44,000 are being paid market rate. They refused to give us any references to where their research is coming from. Our own research suggests a different amount for market rate, and we believe that paying faculty below cost of living in Florida is unjust.
A HUGE THANK YOU to all who attended via Zoom. We appreciate your support! And we’d love to see you in person, especially as we continue discussing salaries, PTR, and the all-important grievance procedure. We seriously consider all feedback on the bargaining process to obtain the best deal for all members of the bargaining unit. Please join us at our next bargaining session scheduled for Wednesday, July 17, from 2–5 in the Training Center across from the stadium and make your voice heard by joining your faculty union.
All the best,
Scott Hannahs, Research Faculty III, National High Magnetic Field Lab
Jennifer Proffitt, Professor, Communication
Co-Chief Negotiators, UFF-FSU
On behalf of your UFF-FSU Bargaining Team