Category: Bargaining News

Report on University Welfare

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Report on University Welfare
for Faculty Senate, September 21st, 2011

By Professor Jack Fiorito, UFF-FSU President

Collective Bargaining

The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for 2010-13 was
finally printed and distributed.  If you do not have your copy please let me know.

Bargaining on re-openers for 2011-12 commenced in May, with salaries (Art. 23) automatically re-opened and each side allowed to select two more articles.  The Administration/BOT team chose Performance Evaluation (Art. 10) and Tenure (Art. 15), while the UFF faculty team chose Academic Freedom and Responsibility (Art. 5) and Benefits (Art. 24).  By mutual agreement, the teams will also re-negotiate the Salary Plan for Professors (Art. 25), and long-gestating Non-Tenure Track Faculty issues that cut across several articles.

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Bargaining Team Signs Off on Winter Break Memorandum of Agreement

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The UFF-FSU bargaining team, and its counterpart representing the Board of Trustees, have signed off on a memorandum of agreement concerning Winter Break.  Ratification of this and other MOAs and article reopeners (e.g. the previously announced MOA on merit pay and the renegotiated version of Article 23 [Salaries]) will be held later this semester.

Bargaining Update, August 10, 2011

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[Posted on behalf of Robin Goodman, UFF-FSU Chapter Secretary and Bargaining Team Member]

The UFF-FSU bargaining team is happy to announce that at the August 8th bargaining session the BOT team acknowledged our cogent arguments on most positions. And more: due to UFF’s persistence and diligence at the bargaining table, the Board of Trustees’ team agreed to give us not only the 3% performance-based increase with a $1,500 floor, not only the $750 per FTE merit bonus based on the department/unit merit procedure evaluations completed in Spring semester 2011, not only the expected promotion raises, but also an additional $150 bonus funds per FTE of merit for deans to distribute!

We thank everyone in the bargaining unit for your patience and support during these difficult negotiations.

We also are grateful to the administration for their continued willingness to return to the bargaining table. Their ability to understand our position in defense of the contract language regarding departmental merit evaluation criteria and procedures was key in reaching these agreements. In the end, we were able to reach consensus on how meritorious and deserving of recognition so many of our faculty have proven to be. We laud you on your accomplishments!

The new salary amounts are effective immediately, with no money lost due to the delay.

When the new semester begins, we will be asking you to ratify these agreements.

LINKS:

The Salary (Article 23) Tentative Agreement

The Merit Bonus Memorandum Of Agreement

Bargaining Update, August 5, 2011

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Bargaining Update
August 5, 2011

Summary: The UFF and the BOT bargaining teams met Monday, August 1st and Wednesday, August 3rd to continue salary negotiations (Article 23 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement or CBA) that began in June and continued throughout July.
The good news is that both sides are in substantial agreement about implementing a three percent (3%) raise; the only disagreement on this issue is whether or not the lowest-paid faculty receive a minimum payment, which is what the UFF proposes and the BOT is considering.

The bad news is that agreement on the salary article has been delayed. The BOT (Board of Trustees) bargaining team claims that the delay might mean that none of the upcoming academic year’s salary changes–including promotion raises and the three-percent raise–can be administered by the start of the new pay period. The UFF is willing to meet continually to reach an agreement, would sign an agreement today that permits these raises to go through, and will negotiate to have any raises applied retroactively if agreement isn’t reached before the first paycheck. The dispute centers on the language of the one-time “merit” bonus. The UFF believes that the evaluation procedures as written in the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement), elaborated in department bylaws, and approved by various levels of the administration must be respected. The BOT team instead wants to circumvent the language in the contract and retroactively apply a different distribution scheme.

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