3.27 Bargaining Update, 4.3 BoT, And More!
In This Update
- Executive Summary of Bargaining
- Join us at the April 3rd Board of Trustees Meeting
- Proposals Exchanged
- Register to Observe Bargaining on Monday, March 30th
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
We held our first Zoom bargaining session on Wednesday, March 25. Your UAOSU bargaining team produced 9 counterproposals on a day where the teams had mutually planned to work towards agreement on them. The Administration team worked for 3 hours to produce just 3 counter-proposals, one of which accepted our clarifying edits to their last proposal, one of which had minor changes from their last proposal, and the last of which reveals the misguided priorities of their team.
The administration returned a counterproposal on Termination Not For Cause in response to our proposal Retrenchment.
Our proposal would create a fair and transparent process for layoffs in the event of financial exigency or program reduction/elimination and a guarantee that laid off faculty would have an opportunity to return to any positions for which they are qualified that became available again.
Unfortunately, the administration’s counter-proposal would reserve ALL rights—maximal “flexibility”—for the administration to layoff faculty, fixed term and tenure track alike, in times that they deem necessary, with minimal “details” that would protect faculty job stability, provide transparency in the process, give faculty voice in the process, or recognize years of dedicated work meeting the mission of our university. At this time when we are all being asked to work selflessly to deliver remote content in a health crisis, it is disappointing that the administration presented a proposal that would allow for the termination of faculty beyond what is granted by existing university policy. The administration can do better and make a proposal that reflects recent statements by the Provost—e.g. “the university will seek to maintain the employment of its employees”—and many parts of the Strategic Plan 4.0—“Support for the long-term success of our tenure-track and non-tenure track faculty.”
Our faculty union is more important now than ever before. Join us in working together for a fair contract that ensures we have the resources and stability we need.
JOIN US AT THE FRIDAY, APRIL 3RD BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING
As you may know, the next Board of Trustees meeting will be held virtually over Zoom on Friday, April 3rd. At the last BoT in January, over 30 UAOSU members gave testimony and delivered the Fair Contract Petition signed by hundreds of us. It is crucial that we show our strength as a union at this critical moment in our negotiation process in order to win our contract by the end of Spring Term!
In order to make our presence known, we are asking attendees to:
- Change their Zoom profile pictures to the Strength in Unity sign
- Change their Zoom name to add UAOSU at the end (for example, Jane Doe, UAOSU)
- If chat is enabled, say hello to the room from a ‘Proud UAOSU member’ (for example, “Hi, this is Jane Doe, proud UAOSU member!”)
Please find a tutorial on how to make these changes to your Zoom profile here.
Can we count on you to join us by Zooming into the BoT meeting at 10am on Friday, April 3rd? Please confirm your attendance by clicking here.
PROPOSALS EXCHANGED
The teams brought proposals on:
- UAOSU
- Administration
- Grievance Procedure
- Termination Not for Cause (Responsive to our Article on Retrenchment)
- Periodic Review of Faculty
Our website provides a table with links to all proposals exchanged throughout bargaining.
REGISTER TO OBSERVE BARGAINING ON MONDAY, MARCH 30
The next bargaining session is 11–3 on Monday, March 30 on Zoom. Register to observe the Monday bargaining session here: https://zoom.us/j/187799614. We plan to be live streaming the joint session at 11am and again at 2pm, with time for caucusing between.
Even if you can only join the meeting for half an hour, your attendance matters: show the administration that faculty are watching this process.
We appreciate your support. You can find a full calendar of bargaining sessions on our website.
In solidarity,