Your bargaining team met with the administration for our first bargaining session last Thursday. It was an amicable encounter and began with the typical niceties that characterize initial sessions.
Your bargaining team brought eight articles and the administration brought one. We look to strengthen shared governance through proposals in Articles 3: Shared Governance and 4: Unit Level Policies. With our addition to Article 6: Policies and Practices, we want to ensure that faculty are made aware of policies implemented across the administrative hierarchy that ultimately affect their working conditions. Our proposal in Article 8: Personnel Files aims to ensure the integrity of the contents of a faculty member's personnel file when corrections are mandated. In Article 12: Facilities and Support, we return to the perennial issue of adequate heating and cooling systems on campus, but also attempt to ensure that faculty have the services needed for the performance of their professional responsibilities, beyond issues of infrastructure. In Article 15: Academic Classification and Rank, we hope to improve the transparency and efficiency of the reclassification process for Pro Tem employees as well as disincentivize the misuse of such employees. In Article 22: Grievance Procedure, we propose a change to timelines that will allow faculty members to attempt conflict resolution informally before the formal grievance timeline begins.
Finally, with Article 33: Sabbatical, we are pushing for more transparency in the sabbatical process and augmenting pay percentages for 2- and 3-term sabbaticals. We now have the proposals posted on our bargaining website. Every session we will post new proposals and counterproposals.
Thank you to everyone who showed up in Chiles 125 or in person. Your bargaining team appreciates your support. We will return every other week for the rest of this term. Before the February 15th session, we will send out a reminder and a preview of what we plan to propose.
In solidarity,
Nathan Whalen
Chair of the UA Bargaining Team