Wednesday’s bargaining session was a flurry of activity as the two sides tentatively agreed to three articles and an appendix, and we are hopeful that we can soon agree to three more. But the main event was salaries, which was discussed right after President McCullough’s email promised investment in faculty and staff through increased salaries. The BOT team presented their latest offer on Article 23 (Salaries), and the UFF team countered:
| BOT | UFF | |
| Performance (also called across-the-board) | 3% | 5.75% |
| Department Merit | 1.25% | 1.25% |
| Dean’s Merit | 0.75% | 0.25% |
| Market Equity | $500,000 | $750,000 |
| Administrative Discretionary Increases (ADI) | 1.00% | 0.50% |
We were pleased to see the BOT team increase their Performance and Market Equity proposals and reduce the amount they allocated to Dean’s Merit, although Dean’s Merit still remains unprecedentedly high. The BOT team said they heard our concerns. Their movement on salaries is in the right direction, but we are still not quite “there,” as expressed by the faculty in the bargaining room and the 43 faculty members on Zoom who stated that they were hopeful after seeing the president’s email but disappointed with the BOT’s proposal.
We’d also like to thank the more than 560 faculty members who already signed the UFF-FSU petition asking the BOT to provide fair salaries for faculty members who worked incredibly hard in dangerous circumstances to ensure that intellectual and educational life at the University continued uninterrupted. Your voices made a difference! And there is still time to sign the petition if you haven’t already.
With no raises for most faculty in two of the last three years, faculty members have fallen further and further behind. And while the BOT and President McCullough argue that the current salary offer is the most generous in at least a decade, they fail to acknowledge the two years with no raises and the 14% plus rate of inflation since the last raise that is eating up our paychecks. As we have noted, FSU bragged about how “All of FSU’s priorities were funded.” But the offer they call generous does not demonstrate that faculty are a priority. In addition, this year, FSU received an increase of $66 million or almost 11% in unrestricted state funding in lottery, tuition/fees, and state General Revenue. As a faculty member noted in the Zoom chat, “The fact that [the BOT’s offer is] the largest in 10 years does not actually help their cause; that data shows how poorly we’ve been compensated.” And another faculty member asked after hearing the BOT’s salary offer, “That is supposed to make up for other years?”
The BOT team once again said that they are very close to their salary limit, so now really is the time for faculty to show that they want a more meaningful salary offer by attending the next bargaining session scheduled for Wednesday, August 3, from 2-5 (information regarding location can be found below). If it is at all possible, please attend in person and encourage your colleagues to attend in person as well. Having faculty in the room is an effective and visible way to support the UFF team’s position. Having faculty members attend via Zoom also helps because we do let them know how many faculty attend virtually, but your physical presence sends a powerful message that we are all in this together.
A big thank you to the faculty who have attended in person and virtually these last few weeks. Please continue to do so!
The two teams did Tentatively Agree (TA) to Article 19 (Conflict of Interest/Outside Activity), with most of the protections for faculty we asked for, and Appendix K and agreed to status quo language (no changes) in Article 8 (Appointment) and Article 12 (Non-Reappointment). The BOT proposed that the teams agree to the changes the UFF team proposed in Article 18 (Inventions & Works), Article 24 (Benefits), which would codify the tuition scholarships for faculty member’s dependent children and spouses, and Article 17 (Leaves), which would remain status quo—that is, only one paid parental leave (UFF’s last proposal was two paid parental leaves). The UFF team proposed a counteroffer to Article 17 changing paid parental leave to paid family leave, which would allow faculty to use the leave for the birth or adoption of a child or to take care of sick family members, including spouses, biological or adoptive parents, biological or adoptive children, step-children, and biological or adoptive siblings. We noted that this change would recognize the lives of faculty members as sometimes-caregivers and would offer a more family-friendly and age-friendly campus.
We are still waiting for a response to UFF’s proposed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to ensure that Promotion and Sustained Performance raises become effective for those faculty in August and to Article 22 (Sabbatical & Professional Development Leave).
As noted, the next bargaining session is scheduled for Wed., August 3, from 2:00-5:00. Our union’s efforts at the bargaining table are most effective when faculty support is evident, so if you care about salaries, please come! It really does make a difference.
Bargaining sessions are open to all faculty. Meetings are face-to-face at the FSU Training Center (493 Stadium Drive). If you would like to attend remotely, please contact Chandler Blount [email protected] to receive the Zoom link. (Alternatively, if you retained a previous bargaining Zoom link, it will still work.)
Regular bargaining updates and the entire CBA can be found under “UFF At Work” at our webpage: https://uff-fsu.org/
The key to a strong Collective Bargaining Agreement is a strong membership base, so if you are not a member, please join! There has never been a more important time for us to stand together. https://uff-fsu.org/wp/join/
All the best,
Scott Hannahs and Jennifer Proffitt, Co-Chief Negotiators, UFF-FSU