12.4.24 – Admin Countered on Compensation, Still Refuse to Invest in Faculty

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Your UAOSU bargaining team and the administration team met on November 26. We spent most of the session discussing the administration’s response to the CGE strike and resulting impact on faculty. In the final ten minutes of the session, the administration team passed proposals on Compensation, Benefits, Leaves, and Term of the Agreement

 

UPCOMING SESSIONS

Use the links below to add these to your calendar.

 

FULL UPDATE

This session opened with a continued discussion of the way that the administration has responded to the ongoing CGE strike. As you will have seen in our email from Monday, our union has issued a demand to bargain over the coverage of striking employee work, and we have also sought that the administration cease and desist this unilateral imposition to working conditions until the bargaining process is completed. If you have questions or information to share, please email info@uaosu.org


In the final ten minutes of the session, the administration team passed a package of four proposals. Their Compensation proposal continues to strike our proposed inflation and across-the-board adjustments, again depending on merit increases as the sole form of regular raises. They again refused a dedicated pool, which has historically been how faculty raises work at OSU, which ensures that there is money flagged to distribute to faculty. As their proposal reads, the most that faculty could count on is 2% in the first year, then 1.8% in the remaining years of the contract. Without a dedicated pool, there is no commitment above the minimum raise. Their proposal does include somewhat higher salary minimums, but they’re far below what is needed for our faculty. They continue to strike equity adjustments and language confirming how Ecampus development payments would work. 

 

In Benefits, the administration continues to strike our proposal to bring Postdoctoral Scholar health insurance benefits into alignment with the rest of faculty. They continue to strike our proposed language clarifying benefits upon retirement, including the proposal to open the possibility of emeritus status for all promoted faculty. They have added some amount of language around tuition reduction, but rejected all our proposed improvements to that program. 

 

In Leaves, the administration team made a big point of having included some additional detail about sabbatical, although they have again rejected our proposed expansions of this leave to all promoted faculty. They also continue to reject our previous agreement related to the 120 hours of family and medical leave we won in our first contract, contending that this leave should be pro-rated by FTE. 

 

In Term of the Agreement, they have moved from a six year contract to a five year contract – this remains unheard of in higher education. 

 

While we are glad to see another turn of these core articles, we’re disappointed at the lack of substantive movement. 

 

The next bargaining session is 9:30am–1:30pm on Thursday December 12 in Cascade Hall 135. Even if you can only drop by for half an hour, your attendance matters: show the administration that faculty are watching this process. We plan to come back to Compensation, and we will keep fighting to get the contract that faculty deserve. 

 

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,


Kelly McElroy and Your Bargaining Team