Response to Provost Feser’s Salary Increase Program (10/31/19)
Dear Colleagues,
On Monday, our UAOSU bargaining team was offered a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on compensation for the 2020 fiscal year (FY2020). The MOU:
- required us to sign away our right to negotiate salaries for FY2020 in exchange for inclusion in the faculty salary increase program announced by the University’s Provost for FY2020;
- provided no written specifications as to eligibility criteria, the size of the raise pool, minimum raises for those eligible, or the process for determining the distribution of merit raises;
- was delivered in the closing minutes of the bargaining session, giving us no opportunity to ask questions or negotiate over these provisions; and
- allowed us only three days to respond.
On Monday night, Provost Feser sent an email announcing the Provost’s salary increase program. As part of his message, Provost Feser again indicated that in order for bargaining unit faculty to particulate in this program, our union would have to agree to give up our right to bargain for raises for all faculty in FY2020, thereby excluding postdoctoral faculty, all faculty with less than 0.5 FTE, and faculty who did not receive an annual review.
Our Organizing Committee considered the matter at length on Tuesday evening and resolved to decline to sign the MOU and to continue bargaining over salaries. The administration has a legal obligation to bargain with us in good faith. Their attempts to impose a short and arbitrary deadline, provide no opportunity for questions or discussion, and abruptly move negotiations away from the bargaining table and into our inboxes, are alarming steps out of line with good faith bargaining.
The full text of our response to the Assistant Provost of Academic Employee and Labor Relations can be found here.
We formed our union to have a voice in our university’s governance and to be able to negotiate over issues that are important to us, including compensation. We expect the administration to negotiate in good faith for salaries and working conditions, not to wait months to provide a proposal that would maintain a flawed status quo with no time to discuss or interrogate the proposal and with an unnecessary and unreasonable deadline of three days to reply.
Join with us in negotiating for fairer compensation for all OSU faculty:
- Attend bargaining on November 8, 10am-1pm. Please RSVP, and we’ll confirm the location with you as soon as we know it.
- Sign our petition to let the administration know you want a fair contract.
- Become a member to strengthen our union.
In solidarity,
Your UAOSU Bargaining Team