UFF-USF

After the two sides reach a tentative agreement in collective bargaining, each side must go through a ratification process. For the union, that means a vote open to all employees in the bargaining unit (whether members or not), with information about changes in the collective bargaining agreement available to all employees.

The exact dates and times for balloting on the one-year tentative agreement reached on Wednesday are not yet set, but on the Tampa and St Pete campuses, they will probably be in front of or in the library, and they will probably be late in the last week of classes. Information on the tentative agreement will be on the ratification information page early next week, as well as elsewhere.

The USF Board of Trustees and the United Faculty of Florida are pleased to announce they have reached a tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement. Details will be forthcoming early next week

As I explained at the Faculty Senate meeting this week, the Trustees’ non-response to our second proposal on the sabbatical floored me. It is in their own interest to increase the number of peer-reviewed sabbaticals, as something of value to both the university and faculty, as efficient, and as a guaranteed retention mechanism. According to the Tampa Tribune, the one-month cost of operating the new student center is more than $100,000, a figure that flabbergasted the student newspaper’s editorial board That one month of utilities on a single building is half of the marginal costs to USF of running the current sabbatical program described in section 22.3 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Which is better for research productivity? The Trustees missed an opportunity to be good managers as well as establish better relations with the faculty.

You can read the Article 22 proposal presented March 7, 2008 to make your own judgment about the proposal.

Here are the five proposals that UFF-USF placed on the table in written form October 24, 2008, and November 5, 2008:

• Memorandum of Understanding proposal #1, proposed October 24, 2008
• Memorandum of Understanding proposal #2, proposed October 24, 2008
• Memorandum of Understanding proposal #3, proposed October 24, 2008
• Article 23, UFF-USF proposal 7A, proposed November 5, 2008
• Article 23, UFF-USF proposal 7B, proposed November 5, 2008

The UFF-USF Chief Negotiator made clear that all of these options were acceptable to the UFF.

Update: The BOT team has made the November 5 bargaining session minutes available.

Yesterday afternoon, I heard from the Trustees bargaining team that the Trustees did have a response to the UFF’s proposed Memorandum of Understanding. The next bargaining session will be this Friday, 3-5 pm, in location TBA.

After the bargaining session this afternoon and a few minutes before I sent out a bargaining update, the Trustees’ Chief Negotiator sent the following out to in-unit faculty:

On behalf of the USF Board of Trustees’ bargaining team, I am pleased to share the following update on the collective bargaining efforts between the University and the faculty union.

USF’s Board of Trustees remains steadfast in its commitment to raising faculty base salaries even in these increasingly difficult economic times. On August 22, 2008, the USF Board of Trustees first proposed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that would have immediately awarded faculty salary increases. Unfortunately, this proposal was rejected at that time by the faculty union. Earlier today the faculty union presented the USF Board of Trustees’ bargaining team with such a MOU for in-unit faculty. We expect to provide a response very soon.

That’s not quite my memory of the Trustees’ proposed MOU. But if the Trustees decide that the MOU put on the table today serves their interests, I will be satisfied and won’t particularly worry about the spin they put on it beforehand. An agreement is an agreement by both parties.

The UFF-USF Bargaining Team sent the following to the bargaining unit as USF on Wednesday, September 10:

A message from the UFF-USF Bargaining Team

Last Thursday, the Trustees’ bargaining team made what appeared to us from the remarks of the Trustees’ representatives as its best salary offer. Since we represent you at the bargaining table, we think you should know about this offer.
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The next collective bargaining session between UFF-USF and the USF Board of Trustees will be July 11, 3-5 pm, in SVC 2080.

The bargaining teams for UFF-USF and the Board of Trustees met this afternoon. Before the meeting, the chief negotiator for the BOT team let UFF-USF know that they were waiting until the BOT approved the 2008-09 budget before presenting proposals on the salaries and benefits articles. The UFF-USF chief negotiator presented the chapter’s third proposal on salaries. (Since June 2007, the BOT team has not presented any counter-proposal on salary.) UFF-USF also presented a proposal on one of the technical articles (on amendment and duration).

There was discussion but no concrete language proposed on several other topics.

At the end of the fall, the joint USF-UFF committee to look at domestic partner health insurance benefits submitted its recommendations to both sides. At the March 7, 2008, collective bargaining session, the UFF team put language almost identical to the committee report on the table.

As Chief Negotiator Bob Welker noted, the committee’s recommendations represented the work of both sides, and while those recommendations are not binding on the parties, UFF does not want the work to be wasted; regardless of financial circumstances at the moment, the two sides should be able to negotiate eligibility conditions and the general shape of benefits for when the financial circumstances allow the creation of the program.