Bargaining is becoming less productive as time progresses. We expect this process to enter mediation soon. Come to bargaining Thursday November 21, 12:30-3:30, in Chiles 125.
Still No Movement from Admin
Thank you to everyone that came out to bargaining last Wednesday. The Oregon Falling rally buoyed our team's spirits and showed administration the broad support for our proposals.
We are bargaining again on Thursday, November 21 from 12:30-3:30 in Chiles 125. Your presence is still necessary to motivate the administration to take our demands seriously now, before we may have to take more dire actions later.
Your team presented our proposal on Article 26: Salary unchanged from our previous iteration given that the administration presented what they framed as a "cost-neutral" proposal in the prior session. “Cost-neutral” is the administration’s way of telling faculty they don’t plan to compensate faculty for inflation, much less have a plan to bring our salaries up to our peers. This is an indication of poor financial management and poor stewardship of the mission of the university. In light of these failures, it will be up to faculty to preserve and protect the mission of our university.
Once again, we spoke at length about Articles 19and 20 (Career and Tenure Promotion and Review, respectively). While we are somewhat closer on the terms of credit for prior service for Pro Tem faculty, after prior administrative abuse, we will not relent in our demand that such credit be automatic.
In our previous session, there was a very concerning moment when the administration handed back a proposal in which they rejected previously accepted language that guaranteed clock stoppage for one year for faculty on leave for birth of a child or an intermittent ADA or FMLA qualifying event. This was a textbook case of regressive bargaining, as we explained to the administration when we returned the proposal on Wednesday with the previously accepted language. They will be facing an Unfair Labor Practice if we see this language excised in any future proposals. We are not only concerned with protecting members in scenarios in which they exercise their right to protected leave, but also for what this means in terms of our dynamic at the bargaining table or in future mediation sessions.
We also continued conversations on Article 17: Assignment of Professional Responsibilities with only a few remaining sticking points. One of the primary issues is whether faculty should be held responsible for service work while off contract. The administration has failed to logically explain their resistance to this provision though service burden is a well-known and documented tendency.
Finally, conversations over Article 22: Grievance Procedure have come to a standstill. We have attempted to establish procedures to facilitate informal conflict resolution and ensure due process within the grievance hearing; the administration has proven reluctant to work with us on contract language that would provide for this. As a result, we will need to educate members on processes, and will inevitably push for more arbitrations to gain clarity on certain provisions.
While we are prepared to continue bargaining, December 5th is our last scheduled bargaining session. The administration has made no movement toward scheduling rooms after that date, in what feels like an attempt to move toward resolution behind closed doors. We will be rallying before that bargaining session; stay tuned for more details.
We look forward to seeing you on Thursday, 12:30-3:30 in Chiles 125 for our penultimate bargaining session.