1.7.21 Covid Bargaining Update

Published by Megan on

The UAOSU bargaining team and the administration team met 12:30–1:30 on Wednesday, December 16 on Zoom. We successfully finalized a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the impact of COVID-19 on Reviews, Promotion, and Tenure.

UAOSU’s goal was to ensure that all bargaining unit members are fully informed of their right to include a COVID-19 impact statement in review materials and dossiers, which can include differential impacts, including those related to race and gender. For the next two years, notifications to bargaining unit members of their right to include COVID-19 impacts in their review materials will come through multiple administrative channels, including direct supervisors.  After this initial period, such notices will be distributed via college or unit heads and Faculty Affairs. The administration will advise P&T committees and others who assess review materials that they may consider the impacts of COVID-19 impact statements in their work. Information about the inclusion of COVID-19 impact statements will remain on the Faculty Affairs website until 2025 and will be updated as needed.

The complete MOU can be found on our website.  There is no time like the present for documenting the impact of COVID-19 and considering how to include that in upcoming reviews.  The ADVANCE Program at UMass Amherst has created a detailed document “Documenting Pandemic Impacts: Best Practices” that we have found helpful in thinking about these issues.

With this signed MOU, bargaining over the impacts of Covid-19 is finished for the time being. We will continue to have further conversations regarding the impact of COVID via our regular labor-management meetings. 

Here you can find all of the MOUs this bargaining process has produced. They cover bargaining unit faculty’s ability to continue to work remotely, an agreement on the enforcement of COVID policies, guidelines on start-up and other discretionary fund extensions, and the aforementioned promotion and review agreement. Please take the time to read these and help ensure that they are being followed in your colleges and departments, and reach out with any questions or concerns you may have.

Our union has achieved a great deal together in 2020.  We bargained our first contract, negotiated important aspects of working through COVID-19, limited salary cuts, elected officers, and continued to build and organize our union.  Through a pandemic, weeks of smoke, and national events, this has been a challenging and consequential year for UAOSU and our institution.  We value our union more than ever, as well as the support of each of our bargaining unit members. To join with us and become a member, click here

We look forward to 2021 and continuing to work together to address important issues for OSU faculty. We will be back at the bargaining table again in Spring 2021, or possibly even sooner if the impacts of COVID-19 demand it. Your attendance at these bargaining sessions matters. Please show the administration that faculty are watching this process by planning to attend some or all of these sessions. 

We appreciate your support.

In solidarity,

Your bargaining team

Categories: bargaining