More than 500 FSU faculty members responded to the UFF-FSU poll earlier this month. This constitutes approximately 31% of UFF-represented FSU faculty (1600+ members of the General Faculty Bargaining Unit). Preliminary tabulations are available
at: https://uff-fsu.org/art/May2012FacPollResultsNC-Post.pdf
Category: Bargaining News
Merit Bonus and Other Updates
In response to a UFF-FSU Facilitation request and meeting (see Sec. 20.8(a) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement), FSU Administration representatives notified UFF-FSU representatives on Monday that additional merit bonus distributions will be made in several colleges and other academic units. The Facilitation was initiated because UFF-FSU analysis indicated certain units distributed less bonus funds than called for by the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) negotiated between the Administration and UFF. Bargaining Co-Chair Dr. Scott Hannahs, Grievance
Chair Dr. Lee Stepina, UFF Service Unit Director Tom Wazlavek, and I conducted
the analysis and represented the UFF in the Faciliation meeting.
Colleges/units that should see substantial additional distributions include Motion Picture Arts (Film School), Student Affairs, Social Work, Institute for Science and Public Affairs, Graduate School, Ringling Center, Human Sciences, Undergraduate Studies, Visual Arts, Theatre, and Dance, Learning Systems Institute, and Education.
Report on University Welfare for Faculty Senate, April 18th, 2012
By Professor Jack Fiorito, Senator and UFF-FSU President
“Welcome” to new, continuing, and returning Senators. This is a good time to review the roles of the Senate and of the United Faculty of Florida (UFF). The Faculty Senate is the voice of the faculty on academic matters, and can express its opinion on “any subject of interest to the University.” (And I will come back to that in a minute.) The UFF is the exclusive bargaining agent for salaries and other terms and conditions of employment. These roles sometimes overlap, but I am pleased to say that we generally have collegial and professional working relations between the UFF and Senate.
Read More →
Report to Faculty Senate on University Welfare, March 21, 2012
Collective Bargaining
Faculty voted overwhelmingly in favor of the changes and supplements to our Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in last month’s ratification vote. A special thanks to those of you who voted!
I hope everyone has completed the reading assignments that I announced at last month’s Senate (see the February Senate Minutes). They will be helpful in appreciating some of the issues under discussion at the bargaining table. Read More →
Report on University Welfare for Faculty Senate, February 22nd, 2012
Ratification voting is underway. If you are in the faculty bargaining unit and did not vote already, please do so on your way out today.
Aside from ratification, I would like to talk about reading assignments today. I will try to be brief and give you more time for your reading.
One document I urge you to read is the summary of what we are voting about. This summarizes everything we were able to resolve during roughly the past year of bargaining. There were many other things that we discussed, some very important to the Senate. Our bargaining co-chairs, Dr. Scott Hannahs of the Mag Lab and Dr. Irene Padavic of Sociology, prepared an excellent summary of the past year’s negotiations, including many of the issues that we are continuing to negotiate. It is only two pages, and it is excellent reading on some critical issues. Both documents are available at our web site and will pop up if you search there for “ratification.”
One key issue is the reclassification of specialized (non-tenure track) faculty. As recognized in the 2006 Faculty Senate report on specialized faculty, this issue necessarily ties into FSU’s commitment to tenure. Sec. 8.3 of our contract states “Commitment to developing and maintaining a tenured faculty. The Board agrees that it is in the best interests of the University, the faculty, and the students to maximize the ratio of tenured and tenure-accruing E&G appointments to the number of non-tenure-accruing E&G appointments among those appointments including significant teaching responsibilities. As Drs. Padavic and Hannahs report, however, “The chief … sticking point is the BOT team’s disinterest in any contract language that would follow through on the commitment of the FSU Constitution, the Faculty Senate, and the Collective Bargaining Agreement to preserve a tenured faculty.”