The minutes of our October 2020 consultation can be found at the link below.
We hold four of these a year with upper-level Administration. Two include President Thrasher.
Consultations are intended to provide a relaxed forum to discuss issues of interest to faculty. All are encouraged to contact UFF if you have something you feel needs to be discussed.
The minutes of our April 2020 consultation can be found at the link below.
We hold four of these a year with upper-level Administration. Two include President Thrasher.
Consultations are intended to provide a relaxed forum to discuss issues of interest to faculty. All are encouraged to contact UFF if you have something you feel needs to be discussed.
The administration and UFF bargaining teams met this week and finalized contract provisions for 2020-2021, subject to approval by the bargaining unit in a secret ballot ratification vote.
Regarding Salaries, we arrived at a one-time bonus of $1,200. Recall that faculty also received a $1,500 raise that was negotiated last year and went into effect in August. Promotion raises remain at 12% and 15% and Sustained Performance Increases remain at 3%. Administrative Discretionary Increases, used for increased duties, extraordinary accomplishments, counteroffers, and certain other reasons specified in Sec. 23.9, are allowable up to 0.80% of the faculty salary base.
A big win for faculty is a Memorandum of Understanding about the Tuition Scholarship for Dependents/Spousesthat extends the existing scholarship program for dependents to include spouses and graduate, not just undergraduate, credit hours.
We agreed on several changes in Article 13, Layoffs, that represent major improvements. Whereas the original language offered wide latitude, for example by allowing a layoff unit to be any level of organization as the University deems appropriate, the new language is specific: “A layoff unit is an organizational unit such as a division, college, or department. The unit is defined as the tenure home or, in the case of specialized or non-tenure-track faculty, the administrative home, that the faculty member was hired into or transferred into. In addition, a layoff unit may be defined as an establishedoperational area or a subdivision of a tenure or administrative home, when the area/subdivision is comparable in most regards to a department.” We believe this specificity represents a major improvement.
As for layoff ordering, no faculty member without tenure who has more than 7 years of service may be laid off if there are faculty in the unit with 7 or fewer years, an increase from the former 5-year demarcation. In cases where faculty members are equally qualified, there is now a finite list of factors that can be considered. And whereas previously no tenured faculty member could be laid off in order to create a vacancy to be filled by an administrator, now such a move cannot be made regardless of the tenure status of the faculty member.
By mutual agreement no changes were made to the other opened articles, namely, Leaves, Benefits, and Conflict of Interest/Outside Activity.
Finally, we arrived at a Memorandum of Understanding on the COVID-19 Health Emergency that addresses workplace issues; teaching, research, and service assignments; and tenure and promotion.
Faculty need to vote to ratify these agreements, and we’ll send details soon. Ratification voting matters, and we hope you cast your secret ballot.
We also invite members to come to an online Bargaining Forum happy hour this evening at 5:00. Members have received an invitation and zoom link from UFF President Matthew Lata, but reply to this email if you want it resent.
Our ability to bargain a strong contract depends on YOU! The more members we can point to, the greater our strength at the bargaining table. Raises and the preservation of faculty rights are not gifts from the administration but are the result of good-faith and persistent bargaining. Join here: https://uff-fsu.org/wp/join/
All best,
Irene Padavic and Scott Hannahs, Co-Chief Negotiators, UFF-FSU
The BOT and UFF bargaining teams met for regular bargaining on Wednesday to consider several proposals. The meeting was lively with several proposals and counterproposals discussed.
We began with the UFF proposal on Salaries, which specified a $1,500 bonus with the possibility of its becoming permanent and a 0.5% cap on Administrative Discretionary Increases (ADI) raises. We also proposed that Market Equity distributions (which can occur under ADI) rely on comparative data more recent than 2014 and 2016.
The BOT responded during the meeting with a Salaries counter proposal that offers an $850 bonus with no possibility of becoming permanent, a 0.8% cap on ADI raises, and old Market Equity data source references.
As for Layoffs, the teams had already made substantial progress on the issue of defining a layoff unit, and the UFF was satisfied with new language in the BOT proposal. We also were pleased that the BOT no longer lists having been disciplined as a condition that can be considered and that they accepted wording saying that layoffs should be considered only after other options have been explored. The teams had a back-and forth on the ordering of layoffs, with the BOT proposal having completely removed a stipulation that people with five years of continuous service cannot be laid off if there are faculty in the layoff unit have more and the UFF countering with a proposal specifying six years.
The UFF presented its counterproposal on Conflict of Interest/Outside Activity, and the BOT suggested that the teams revert to status quo on this article (opened by the BOT) and the Leaves article (opened by the UFF).
We have bargaining scheduled for Wednesday, September 9 at 2:00, where we will be returning to these same articles.
Bargaining sessions are open to faculty, and negotiations have benefited from the many faculty who have been coming to sessions. There is definitely strength in numbers, and we appreciate having you! If you would like to attend, please respond to this message and we will send you the link.
We also invite members to come to an online Bargaining Forum happy hour this evening at 5:00. Members have received an invitation and zoom link from UFF President Matthew Lata, but reply to this email if you want it resent.
Regular updates can be found 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 best,
Irene Padavic and Scott Hannahs, Co-Chief Negotiators, UFF-FSU
The BOT and the UFF teams met Monday and are pleased to announce that we have reached agreement on a Memorandum of Understanding on the COVID-19 Health Emergency. It took months of hard work, but both teams support the result. You can read the agreement here.
Some notable elements:
We are engaging in regular bargaining this week on Wednesday, September 2, at 2:00, on the remaining open articles: Layoffs, Salaries, Leaves, and Conflict of interest/Outside activity.
Bargaining sessions are open to faculty, and negotiations have benefited from the many faculty members who have been attending. We appreciate having you! If you would like to attend, respond to this message and we will send you the links when we receive them.
We also invite members to come to an online Bargaining Forum happy hour this Friday at 5:00. Members will receive an invitation and zoom link from UFF President Matthew Lata.
Regular updates can be found 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 best,
Irene Padavic and Scott Hannahs, Co-Chief Negotiators, UFF-FSU
