Your bargaining team met with the administration for the 16th session of negotiations on October 17. Thank you to everyone who attended, whether in person or over Zoom. We know that everyone has very busy lives and we appreciate your engagement. The next session will be Thursday, October 31st, 12:30 - 3:30 in Chiles 125.

We are quite probably in the end stages of bargaining, and it is more important than ever that faculty remain engaged and show up for our bargaining sessions if we are to win a fair contract at the bargaining table, rather than being forced to consider a strike.

While we did manage to work through a few minor issues during the last bargaining session, and at least engaged in conversation surrounding some of our major sticking points, administration failed to bring a counterproposal on Article 26: Salary, in spite of the movement that we made in our last counterproposal after taking into account the data provided by the administration. With only four bargaining sessions left, we are dismayed by the unwillingness of the administration to talk substantively about salaries.  We were also dismayed to realize that in Article 20: Tenure Review and Promotion, the administration unilaterally changed already mutually agreed upon language in their proposal—this is an example of regressive bargaining and it is an Unfair Labor Practice.

To help us win a fair contract, please sign our member letter of support that we will present to the President and Board of Trustees in Week 6.  Better yet, ask your UA colleagues to sign it. We also have a letter for community members to sign in support of our negotiations for a fair contract.

We understand that there is anxiety surrounding a possible job action and this is a concrete way to help us avoid a strike.  Members of the bargaining team are available to speak to faculty groups if you would like to arrange such a meeting, and we will also be having a discussion during our General Membership Meeting on Wednesday, October 30th in the Crater Lake Rooms from 5-7:00pm.