EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The UAOSU bargaining team and the administration team met twice last week at the LaSells Stewart Center, on Wednesday, February 14 and Friday, February 16. We passed 7 articles to the administration team, including our proposal to replace fixed-term appointments for non-tenure track faculty with the expectation of continuous employment. The administration team countered on 2 articles, Management Rights and No Strike, No Lockout. A tentative agreement was reached on Labor-Management Meetings.
UPCOMING SESSIONS
Use the links below to add these to your calendar. Sessions will be held in the LaSells Stewart Center unless otherwise noted.
- Wed Feb 21 9am-1pm
- Fri Feb 23 2-4pm
- Mon March 4 1-4pm
- Fri March 15 10am-2pm
- Thurs March 21 10am-2pm
- Mon March 25 1-4pm
FULL UPDATE
Our website provides a table with links to the articles for which we have presented proposals, along with our counters and the administration’s counters.
The session on the 14th began with the administration team passing a counterproposal on Management Rights. They accepted the addition of “the law” in two places, but rejected our language on providing notice of changes that may require bargaining. This is an issue we will continue to discuss.
The first proposal we passed on the 14th was Faculty Appointments (currently known as Appointment and Reappointment). This proposal attempts to move the administration towards primarily using continuous appointments (with a start date, but no ending date) for non-tenure track faculty. We proposed limiting the use of fixed-term contracts to situations where a position is meant to have a limited duration. This proposed change to non-tenure track faculty appointments would improve job stability, remove the burden of regular reappointments, help to recruit and retain excellent faculty, and align with how professional faculty appointments are already handled.
The administration team had questions about who we meant when we refer to “faculty” in our proposals, and we assured them that all of our bargaining unit members, whether or not they have tenure-track appointments, are academic faculty.
The second proposal we passed on the 14th was a counterproposal on Labor–Management Meetings. We countered the administration’s language on meeting once a term with language on scheduling a meeting once per month, with the ability to cancel if neither party has any agenda items. They accepted this proposal on the 16th.
The third proposal we passed on the 14th was a counterproposal on Totality of the Agreement, where we reinserted our earlier language to make it clear that the administration has an obligation to provide notice and bargain changes that affect the Agreement.
The final proposal we passed on the 14th was a counterproposal on Management Rights. We reinserted our language about the administration’s obligation to provide notice and bargain, consistent with our proposed clarifications to the Totality and Separability articles. We noted that over eighteen months of bargaining our inaugural CBA, the teams had agreed that OSU policies that significantly affect the contract’s provisions were incorporated into the contract, and that the administration was therefore obligated to bargain any changes to those policies. The administration team is ignoring this context as well as the explicit reference to incorporated policy in our Grievance Article. We will continue to challenge their limited interpretation of their bargaining obligations.
The session on the 16th began with a tentative agreement: Labor-Management Meetings.
Then the administration passed us a counterproposal on No Strike, No Lockout declining our language codifying that employees in our bargaining unit would not be expected to take on work that had been assigned to striking employees in other bargaining units. They said they will not accept any reference to other bargaining units in our contract and that they will not accept language regarding faculty work assignments in the event of a strike by another bargaining unit. While not explicit, it is clear that their position is that supervisors may assign our bargaining unit members work that was assigned to striking employees in other bargaining units. We will continue to push for language that would protect bargaining unit members from such a situation.
The first proposal we passed on the 16th was Periodic Review of Faculty. Our proposal seeks to add greater clarity about the process by which faculty are evaluated, and it sparked more discussion about when OSU policy is or is not incorporated into the CBA.
The second proposal we passed on the 16th was Discipline and Termination. Because administrators already use a process called “Performance Improvement Plans,” we are seeking to add it to the CBA and clarify how and when these happen and the rights of bargaining unit members in the process.
The third proposal we passed on the 16th was Termination not for Cause, where we clarify how terminations not for cause work for individual faculty and where we hope to codify existing Faculty Senate oversight over elimination, reorganization, and reductions of academic units.
The next two bargaining sessions are at 9am–1pm on Wednesday, February 21 and 2pm-4pm on Friday, February 23, both in the Ag. Production Room at the LaSells Stewart Center. We plan to present an article on Academic Classification and Rank as well as an article on Position Descriptions and Workload. Even if you can only drop by for half an hour, your attendance matters: show the administration that faculty are watching this process.
You can find a list of the currently scheduled bargaining sessions, as well as read our updates and proposals at uaosu.org/bargaining.
Our power in negotiations comes from all of us working together as a united faculty. Becoming a member is the first step in supporting your bargaining team and securing a strong second contract. You can become a member online by going to uaosu.org/join.
In solidarity,
Filix Maisch, on behalf of Your Bargaining Team