Bargaining Sessions 19, 20, 21 | Oct 31, Nov 1, Nov 3
University’s Continued Rejections (though there are a few bright spots)
This past week, The University continued to simply reject most of the bargaining committee’s proposals. There are, however, some bright spots where the bargaining committee and university’s team are beginning to move towards agreement.
The University continues to reject key proposals.
Compensation & Healthcare. The Part-Time Faculty bargaining team has still not heard back from the university since it made proposals on these three topics a few weeks ago. The university’s proposal for only 2% raises and to strip a subset of faculty of health insurance and hike costs remain the university’s last-stated position.
Reappointment Rights. The university continues to reject nearly all of the bargaining committee's proposal on this topic. The bargaining team’s proposal would eliminate faculty turnover, ensuring that the university ceases the practice of hiring faculty for 9 semesters only to terminate them and whittling down long-time faculty members’ baseload over time. Newer faculty should have a real path to job security and long-time faculty should be rewarded, not punished, for the expertise they’ve developed teaching for many years.
Harassment, Discrimination, and Disability Access/Rights.
The university continues to reject the bargaining team’s proposal to provide real recourse against harassment/discrimination by allowing faculty to take their cases to a neutral, third party arbitrator with the help of a union rep and lawyer.
The university’s team also continues to refuse to accept the bargaining team’s proposal to allow union members to file union grievances with the help of union reps in instances where the university does not provide adequate disability accommodation.
The part-time faculty bargaining team remains puzzled as to why a university committed to equity, inclusion, and social justice continues to reject our proposals to make the university more equitable and includes when it comes to providing victims of harassment and discrimination with real recourse and accommodating our colleagues with disabilities.
Health and Safety. The university continues to reject much of the bargaining committee’s proposal on this issue.
The bargaining committee and university team’s are closer to agreement on several topics.
Evaluations. The bargaining committee and university are moving closer towards an agreement on faculty evaluations. The bargaining committee proposed that when the university sends student evaluation forms to students, it also send them research regarding bias in student evaluations against marginalized faculty, including but not limited to LGBTQA+ faculty, faculty of color, women faculty, and faculty whose first language is not English. Though the university has not yet agreed to this, the bargaining committee and university are closer to an agreement on this issue than they were last week.
Printing/Resource Center/Basic Teaching Supplies.
The bargaining committee and university team are very close to an agreement on classroom supplies and printing access.
The university has committed to maintaining existing printing policies and also creating a depot for basic classroom supplies in the Faculty Resource Center on the 3rd floor of the university center.
The only area of disagreement is the university’s continued refusal to allow retired faculty to continue to use university email and digital library sources, a right available to retired full-time faculty
Expense Reimbursement.
The union and university are close to agreement on this issue. The university proposed transitioning away from a reimbursement system to a system under which faculty would request supplies via the university’s procurement process, and the university would be responsible for purchasing and providing said supplies.
The only point of disagreement remains the university’s refusal to provide supplies required to take required university training. (EXAMPLE?)This one is a head scratcher. Does the university think it's fair to have faculty pay out-of-pocket for supplies needed for trainings that the university requires faculty to take?
Attend Bargaining
Interested in hearing what the university says at the bargaining table? You can attend bargaining by RSVP’ing here. Bargaining is open to part-time faculty union members.
Strike Authorization Vote
As a result of the university’s cruel proposals and repeated delays, the part-time faculty bargaining committee urges you to vote “yes” to authorize a strike, if circumstances justify.
To vote, search for an email with subject line “STRIKE AUTHORIZATION VOTE BALLOT” that was sent from “ACT-UAW Local 7902 <noreply@electionrunner.com>.” Click on the link in the email and follow the directions. Your vote is important!
Questions? Email organizer@actuaw.org