Tentative agreement, 2010-2013 collective bargaining agreement

(To all in-unit faculty and professional employees: please provide input on the ratification voting process on the right: “Should the referendum on the 2010-13 collective bargaining agreement be conducted in person or through the online process we used for the last two Memoranda of Understanding?”)

UFF and the USF Board of Trustees has tentatively agreed on the last components of a complete collective bargaining agreement. The ratification page will shortly be updated with information about a ratification vote for all in-unit faculty and professional employees, but here is the gist of the changes to the complete contract (from the 2008-2009 agreement):

  • 2010-11: 1.5% merit raise pool for all employees who are not new hires as of 2010-11. Eligibility: immediate prior annual evaluations with at least 3 on a 1-5 scale. Distribution: formulaic, same as in 2008-09. To be distributed as soon as practical after ratification by both parties.
  • 2011-12: 2.0% merit raise pool for all employees who are not new hires as of 2011-12. Eligibility: immediate prior annual evaluations with at least 3 on a 1-5 scale. Distribution: formulaic, same as in 2008-09. To be distributed August 7, 2011.
  • Promotion raises for tenure-stream and library faculty: 9% (same as before), with raises of $3,000 for those rising to assistant librarian, $5,000 for those rising to associate professor/librarian, $7,000 for those rising to full professor/librarian (double prior flat bumps). All to base.
  • Promotion raises for instructors: 6%. MOU language on instructor-promotion phase-in included by reference.
  • Administration retains discretion in chair stipends and contract length, and stipends for additional duties and responsibilities.
  • Administration has 1% salary discretion for 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13.
  • Increase in ratio of full-pay, one-semester sabbaticals to eligible tenured faculty, from 1 in 30 to 1 in 25.
  • Supplemental teaching summer pay remains proportional to academic-year salary by course, with $12,500 cap in 2011, 2012, and 2013 for a 3-hour course (proportionately scaled for courses with more or fewer hours).
  • Clarifying language on rights in assignment in Article 9 (no substantive change).
  • Addition to the job-abandonment clause in Article 16 to apply roughly equivalent standards for absences in the academic year to summer teaching.
  • Domestic partner health insurance stipend program becomes a formal part of the whole-book contract.
  • The administration’s discretion to offer an early retirement incentive program becomes a formal part of the whole-book contract.
  • A reduction in release units for the chapter: 3 in each academic-year semester, 2 in summer, 2 for whole-book bargaining in 2012-13.

The rest of the contract remains the same, including provisions on layoffs, academic freedom, tenure and promotion, intellectual property, and so forth.

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4 Responses to “Tentative agreement, 2010-2013 collective bargaining agreement”

  1. Kathleen McCook Says:

    Thanks to the bargaining team for persistence and patience.

    –Kathleen

  2. Mark H. Says:

    It appears the Instructor promotions were thrown under the bus. We already operate on a lower pay scale than tenure track faculty, and now our promotional increases will be less as well (6% compared to 9%).

  3. Sherman Says:

    The concession on instructor promotion raises is definitely the worst part of the deal from my perspective. Here’s the advice given me by UFF’s executive director: If we had gone through the rest of the impasse process, we would have had the 6% imposed anyway, plus changes in layoff language to eliminate any seniority protections for instructors who have been at USF for at least five years. There are several scenarios under which an imposed resolution on impasse in Florida would have been either temporary or permanent, and there was a definite risk of having the imposed resolution becoming permanent.

    You are correct that this comes down from the UFF position that is just and appropriate, and we made the same argument repeatedly to the BOT team. Individual faculty and professional employees in the bargaining unit will have to make their best judgment about whether this was a reasonable tradeoff of status-quo language on layoffs vs. instructor promotion raises.

  4. Greg McColm Says:

    The 6 % promotion raise is only one example of the administration’s iniquitous treatment of instructors. And hoping for or expecting the administration to change its attitude is unlikely to be effective. Only organizing will be effective. For academics, that means the Senate and the governing bodies; for terms and conditions of employment, that means the union.