Dear colleagues,
Our thirteenth bargaining session of this bargaining season was held on Wednesday, July 24. Here’s a brief update on where we are in the process.
After presenting us with their proposals for three articles, the BOT team insisted that all three articles were a package and we could only continue to bargain on all of them at once. After caucusing for a short time, they decided we would need more time to counter on all three articles at once and left for the day. We will meet again next week for them to hear our counters.
Synopsis:
- The only change in the BOT salary offer from their last offer was to increase Performance raise by 0.5% and decrease Departmental Merit by 0.5%, hence no change in the total. Moreover, once more, the BOT team rejected our minimum salary offer of $44,000 per year. The BOT team has been telling us that the faculty making under $44,000 are paid at market rates and that there are no retention problems.
- The BOT did not respond to our Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) proposal to implement promotion salary increases while other issues remain unresolved.
- In response to our proposed MOA on post-tenure review (PTR), they completely rejected the MOA and added one single paragraph to Article 10 Performance Evaluations that the parties will comply with the Board of Governors (BOG) regulation on PTR. We consider this a waiver: they are asking us to give up our rights to bargain over a mandatory subject of bargaining (evaluations). Their proposal would leave PTR completely to the discretion of administrators without criteria and without faculty input and could lead to the dismissal of tenured faculty without recourse. Please note that the header in the linked Article 10 above is wrong. This is the BOT’s proposal.
- Similar to the PTR MOA, the BOT team’s response to our proposal for mediation in lieu of arbitration was to reject it all. The BOT team proposal included the status quo language on arbitration plus adding a paragraph to Article 20 Grievance Procedure and Arbitration saying the parties will comply with Florida Statues that ban binding arbitration in personnel disputes.
Here’s the weekly salary chart.
| Bargaining Salary History 2024 | BOT 10(2 weeks ago) | UFF 10(last week) | BOT 11 |
| Promotions | 12/15% | 12/15% | 12/15% |
| Sustained Performance Increase (SPI) for Specialized Faculty at the top rank (now every 5 years) | 3.0% | 3.0% | 3.0% |
| PTR (Associate Professors who are assigned Meets Expectations) | $4,000 bonus | $5,000 bonus | $4,000 bonus |
| PTR (Associate Professors who are assigned Exceeds Expectations) | $6,000 bonus | $6,000 bonus | $6,000 bonus |
| PTR (Professors who are assigned Meets Expectations) | 3.0% raise | 4.0% raise | 3.0% raise |
| PTR (Professors who are assigned Exceeds Expectations) | 5.0% raise | 5.0% raise | 5.0% raise |
| Performance Increase (for all faculty who received higher than Official Concern on most recent annual evaluation) | 2.0% | 3.0% | 2.5% |
| Departmental Merit (based on criteria developed by faculty) | 0.8% | 1.0% | 0.3% |
| Deans’ Merit | 0.20% | 0.20% | 0.20% |
| Market Equity | $500,000 | $700,000 | $500,000 |
| Administrative Discretionary Increases | 0.80% | 0.80% | 0.80% |
Please join us at bargaining today Wednesday (July 31) from 3–5pm in the FSU Training Center and make your voice heard by joining your faculty union. Please note that the start time, 3pm, is one hour later than usual.
In solidarity,
Arash Fahim, Associate Professor of Mathematics, FSU College of Arts and Sciences
On behalf of your UFF-FSU Collective Bargaining Team