Tag Archives: Campaigns & Contracts

California State University reaches contract agreement with faculty

Mercury News: California State University reaches contract agreement with faculty

LOS ANGELES — California State University has reached a tentative agreement on a four-year contract with its faculty that largely preserves current contract terms and calls for no salary raises, the university and faculty union said Tuesday.
“It’s a fair agreement in the context of hard times,” said Lillian Taiz, who heads the California Faculty Association, which represents 23,000 professors, lecturers and other professional employees. “We are disappointed we were not able to get a raise, but that wasn’t in the cards. It was a tough pill to swallow, I won’t kid you.”

The university agreed to possibly reopen salary talks for 2012-13 and 2013-14. Benefits were maintained at the current level.
Both sides said the agreement will allow them to put to rest more than two years of contentious negotiations and work together to push for more revenue for the 23-campus system that has seen $750 million in state funding cuts over the past four years.
The system is one of the largest public university systems in the nation with 400,000 students.

Faculty members have not had a raise for the past five years after the university failed to fulfill salary commitments in the last contract. Taiz said that issue has been set aside in the interest of collaborating with the university to push for more state funding.

California Faculty Association and CSU make tentative contract agreement

California Faculty Association and CSU make tentative contract agreement

After two years of negotiations, the California Faculty Association and the CSU have reached a tentative agreement on the faculty contract today.

The contract will run through June 30, 2014 and will be effective when both parties ratify the agreement.

The agreement comes after the CFA announced that 95 percent of faculty across all 23 CSU campuses were in favor of a strike in the fall if their demands regarding workload, compensation and academic freedom were not met.

According to CSU spokesperson, Stephanie Thara, the tentative agreement will open up the possibility to talk about salary increases for 2012-2013 and 2013-2014.

“Campus presidents will also have the discretion to decide how campus funds are used in terms of salary inversion or salary issues,” Thara said.

Another provision stated that there will be changes to the way three-year temporary faculty members are evaluated and appointed.

In a statement released today, the CFA Bargaining Team said that, “While the CSU administration should be held accountable for its spending priorities, this will be a time to work together with management to show the public why our public university system needs resources to continue to function at a high level.”

A decision will be reached at the September 18-19 CSU Board of Trustees meeting.

Wayne State U. and Faculty Union Work to Defuse Conflict Over Tenure Rights

The Chronicle: Wayne State U. and Faculty Union Work to Defuse Conflict Over Tenure Rights

Representatives of Wayne State University and its faculty union are beginning talks this week in an attempt to head off a major clash over tenure rights.

The Michigan university’s administration and the faculty union set up a special committee on tenure last week as part of an agreement to extend the union’s contract, which had been due to expire on July 31, until the end of September. The six-member panel, comprising equal numbers of union and administration officials, has been charged with trying to resolve an escalating conflict over a contract proposal from the administration. Union leaders have denounced the proposal as an attempt to gut tenure protections, an allegation that university officials deny.

The conflict centers on an administration proposal, offered in the early round of contract negotiations, that would in effect scrap previously negotiated job protections for tenured or probationary faculty members, as well as seniority-based protections afforded many academic staff members, and replace them with new rules governing the suspension or termination of such employees.

The administration’s proposed contract language would give the university’s president, or an administrator working on the president’s behalf, the power to terminate such employees for a variety of reasons, including a “failure to meet professional responsibilities,” a “failure to perform academic assignments competently,” and a “financially based reduction in force.”

Union officials have denounced the proposed contract language as an attempt to do away with tenure and have accused the university’s chief negotiator of explicitly characterizing it as such. Last week the AAUP’s national office began circulating a petition protesting the proposed contract language, which it described as offering “extremely broad” justifications for termination and replacing faculty peer review with the judgment of administrators.

In an e-mail sent to Wayne State’s employees last month, President Gilmour argued that the proposal was “being misinterpreted” as intended to eliminate tenure when instead its goal is to give the administration more leeway to remove faculty members who are not doing their jobs.

“Faculty tenure is an important aspect of academic freedom, and we support it,” he said. “But it cannot be a place to hide for those whose performance or behavior is poor.”

Dalhousie, faculty union set to resume talks today

Chronicle Herald: Dalhousie, faculty union set to resume talks today

As talks resume in an effort to thwart a faculty strike at the region’s largest post-secondary institution, Dalhousie University in Halifax is continually updating its 17,000 students in case a walkout occurs.

The school, which is resuming talks with the Dalhousie Faculty Association today and Friday, updated its website Wednesday to let students know what to expect in case of a strike by 870 professors, instructors, librarians and counsellors.

Wilfrid Laurier U reaches tentative deal with full-time faculty

The Cord: University reaches tentative deal with full-time faculty

At approximately 3:00 am Friday morning, Wilfrid Laurier University reached a tentative deal with the Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association (WLUFA), the union that represents the full-time faculty.

According to Kevin Crowley, director of communications at Laurier, the agreement must be ratified by the university’s Board of Governors and members of WLUFA. This decision comes one day shy of the legal strike date of the union — if they chose to go on strike or if the administration decided to lockout— and after two full days of collective bargaining with the assistance of a provincial mediator.

After years of negotiations U of Florida and faculty union reach contract agreement

Gainesville Sun: UF and faculty union reach contract agreement

The University of Florida’s faculty union has reached agreement on a new contract, after years of negotiations and recent weeks in which a last-ditch deal threatened to fall apart.

United Faculty of Florida and administration negotiators reached agreement late Monday. Union members and UF’s Board of Trustees must still approve the three-year contract, but union chapter president John Biro said it was “almost certain” that would happen

Contract Fight at U. of Hawaii Knocks Down Faculty Morale

The Chronicle: Contract Fight at U. of Hawaii Knocks Down Faculty Morale
Disheartened by a pay cut that they say violates their agreement, some professors look for jobs elsewhere

Discouraged by stalled contract negotiations and their employer’s decision last month to cut their pay, faculty members at the University of Hawaii made their way back to class this week. Although talks are slated to resume, their future is hazy. A few professors—set on leaving the system and its troubles behind—are poised to look for work elsewhere in a job market that is grim for most.

Maryland: PART-TIME FACULTY SETTLES HISTORIC FIRST CONTRACT WITH MONTGOMERY COLLEGE

SEIU Local 500: PART-TIME FACULTY SETTLES HISTORIC FIRST CONTRACT WITH MONTGOMERY COLLEGE

ROCKVILLE (Nov 16) — Late last week, part-time faculty leaders settled a historic first contract with Montgomery College. The contract, which must now be ratified by the part-time faculty and Board of Trustees, is the culmination of more than two years of organizing and negotiations by the part-timers, who teach nearly half of all classes at the College and who are represented by SEIU Local 500. Once ratified, it will be the first collective bargaining agreement for part-time faculty in any institution of higher education in the state of Maryland.

U West Florida faculty, admin talks reach impasse

PNJ.com: UWF faculty, admin talks reach impasse

The University of West Florida’s faculty union, under the United Faculty of Florida, went to impasse in contract negotiations on Friday with the UWF administration for the first time in the school’s history.

After many months of attempted bargaining, the two parties could not reach a consensus on whether anonymous student comments should be added to faculty evaluations.

Union updates

Philadelphia Inquirer: Temple says faculty stalling contract talks
Temple University has filed an unfair-labor-practice complaint against the faculty union, accusing it of failing to continue negotiating a contract because of disagreement over union membership fees.

Socialist Worker: Contract fight at Manhattan School of Music
NEW YORK–After winning a hotly contested union certification battle in May, some 150 teachers of the Manhattan School of Music’s Pre-college Division–all of whom are trained as classical or jazz musicians–will enter into collective bargaining negotiations with the administration this fall.

South Coast Today: Faculty union and administration not on same page at UMass Dartmouth
When the fall semester begins at UMass Dartmouth next week, it won’t just be the physics students who will be getting a lesson in friction. The university’s administration and largest professional union aren’t seeing eye to eye over the most recent round of budget cuts and consolidations and, almost to a person, faculty and staff describe the situation as “tense” and “confusing.”

Hartford Courant: UConn Rattled By Union Drive For Doctors
Doctors are getting nervous about changes in health care, too, especially the ones at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington. Everybody’s on edge as the health center administration adopted a dangerous strategy against the doctors when it distributed an e-mail Thursday seeking to impede a movement by doctors to form a union.

Sudbury Star: LU reaches deal with non-faculty staff union
Laurentian University reached a tentative agreement with the union representing about 250 non-faculty staff on Sunday morning.

Sun Journal: Union, USM may have agreement
LEWISTON – One of four unions working without a contract for the University of Maine System has reached a tentative agreement on a new deal.

Sun-Sentinel: Brogan, FAU faculty union duke it out to governor
Florida Atlantic University President Frank Brogan’s relationship with the faculty union isn’t improving much in his final weeks in office. Brogan, who plans to leave FAU by mid-September to become chancellor of the state university system, sent a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist saying he’s “disappointed by the level of vitriol,” that United Faculty of Florida has expressed on its blog.

India Express: IIT, IIM faculty to get better pay
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the revision of pay scales of faculty, design, scientific and other academic staff of the centrally funded institutions including IITs and IIMs with retrospective effect from January 1, 2006.

Indiana Daily Student: IU officials decide to continue with employee bonus plan
IU will continue with its plan to distribute up to $500 per person to faculty and staff making less than $30,000 a year despite a meeting between IU officials and union leaders July 31.

San Diego News Network: California Budget Crisis Diaries: Lawsuit targets Schwarzenegger
Legislative leaders may be out for summer session but their vacation can’t be too sunny. The cuts throughout the budget – which was signed into law July 28 – are gradually sinking in. Some agencies still don’t understand the impacts, while others continue to receive IOUs, and now, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is facing a lawsuit.

San Francisco Chronicle: Execs still get raises as UC cuts staffing, pay
On the same July day that the UC Board of Regents cut $813 million from UC budgets – setting in motion pay cuts, layoffs and campus cutbacks – the board quietly approved pay raises, stipends and other benefits for more than two dozen executives.

The Crimson: FAS Cuts Janitor Hours
School officials say the moves save jobs, but union calls reductions ‘drastic,’ ‘unnecessary’
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences implemented work hours reductions for over 100 janitors in July—a move that FAS officials say will help cut costs while avoiding layoffs, but union representatives say will devastate worker living standards.

Vermont: UVM part-time faculty contract negotiations at impasse

Burlington Free Press: UVM part-time faculty contract negotiations at impasse

Seemingly evergreen issues of job security, salary and health insurance have led to an impasse in contract negotiations between the University of Vermont’s part-time faculty and administration.
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The university and United Academics – UVM’s faculty union – agreed Thursday to declare an impasse after five months of failed negotiation, according to David Shiman, president of UVM’s faculty union.

Classes back at Montreal university after strike vote

The Gazette: Classes back at Montreal university after strike vote

MONTREAL — Classes will resume on Monday at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal after striking professors approved new contracts Friday.

Nearly 1,000 professors and full-time language instructors had been on strike since March 16.

Bush Gone, NYU Scrambles to Escape Anticipated NLRB Ruling

howtheuniversityworks.com: Bush Gone, NYU Scrambles to Escape Anticipated NLRB Ruling

While I was on the road, I heard from NYU students and faculty about the administration’s plan to restructure graduate education in response to the appointments of Liebman and Solis, which most observers feel will trigger a reversal of the absurd Brown decision, to which Liebman provided a scathing dissent. (That was the ruling that the Bush mob unapologetically used to overturn the landmark, unanimous, and bipartisan GSOC-UAW ruling that forced NYU to the table.)

Nebraska: UNO To Appeal Faculty Raises & Insurance

WOWT: UNO To Appeal Faculty Raises & Insurance

The University of Nebraska announced Friday it will appeal salary increases and a new insurance benefit awarded to faculty members at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. At issue is a contract for faculty members represented by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).