UFF-USF

Attendance.
There were ten members in attendance, including ten of the Chapter Council, insufficient for a quorum.

Minutes.
October 22, 2010 minutes approved.

State budget and legislature.
Discussion.

• Motion made and seconded begin to compile a list of wasteful areas that could be cut. Motion approved.

Membership.

Discussion.

CBA execution.
Discussion of salary.

Treasurer’s Report.
We are solvent.

These minutes respectfully submitted by G. McColm on November 7, 2010.

Attendance.
There were nine members in attendance, including six of the Chapter Council, insufficient for a quorum.

Membership.
Discussion of organizing activities.

• Motion made and seconded that the Chapter hold a spring reception. Motion approved.

CBA execution.
Discussion of salary.

State budget 2011 – 2012.
Discussion of shortfall.

Article 13
Discussion.

Grievances.
Discussion of outstanding grievances.

Internal Regulation.
Discussion of new audit procedures.

Faculty Governance.
Discussion of the USF Tampa senate.

Teleconferencing.
To be pursued.

USF Poly.
Discussion of a new faculty handbook.

These minutes respectfully submitted by G. McColm on November 3, 2010.

Attendance.
There were twelve members in attendance, including ten of the Chapter Council, insufficient for a quorum. The UFF Executive Director was also present.

Membership.
Discussion of organizing activities.

• Motion made and seconded that effective 2011 and for all subsequent years, the deadline for new members to join UFF by spring and receiving the $ 300 rebate in May be January 31. Motion approved.

Minutes.
Minutes for the September 24 Chapter meeting approved.

Meeting schedule.
The chapter will various regional campuses this semester.

• The chapter will meet at USFSP on October 22.
• The chapter will meet at USF Tampa on November 5.
• The chapter will meet at USF Poly on Wednesday, November 17.
• The chapter will meet at USF Tampa on December 3.

The chapter will schedule a meeting at USF Sarasota-Manatee in January.

President’s Report

The BOT voted in favor of ratifying the USF UFF-BOT CBA on October 7, so it is now ratified.

Discussion of GEMS salary data.

• Motion made and seconded that the UFF-USF Chapter requests that USF publish the total compensation of all university employees in an Excel spreadsheet in March of each year as does the University of Florida. Motion passes.

Assignment of release units in the spring of 2011 shall be: five releases (including two banked units) to Sherman Dorn for presidential duties, Greg McColm for communications, Paul Terry for membership services, Robert Welker for education and liaison services, and Sonia Wohlmuth for grievances.

Reports.

• Grievances. Discussion of grievances.
• Treasury. We are solvent.
• Communications. Discussion of communications.
• Political Action. Discussion of the situation this fall and coming spring.

Good of the Order.
Two departures.

• Mark Klisch is leaving for Spain.
• Motion made and seconded to allocate $ 100 for a gift for Mary Johnston. Motion passes.

These minutes respectfully submitted by G. McColm on October 9, 2010.

The Board of Trustees ratified the 2010-13 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the BOT and the United Faculty of Florida, and it is now in effect. To read a human-friendly version of the new CBA, head to an experiment in an annotated online CBA.

Slice of life from the logistics of ratification. I just spent some time with a colleague on a Fulbright in the Republic of Moldova to give some technical assistance on voting in the CBA ratification election. She said she was able to vote, and I suspect she’s the furthest from Tampa to vote on ratification.

Voting ends tomorrow evening (Tuesday, October 5).

Attendance.
There were sixteen members in attendance, including twelve of the Chapter Council, insufficient for a quorum. The UFF Executive Director was also present.

Minutes.
Minutes for the September 10 Chapter meeting approved.

Membership.
Discussion of September 22 reception.
NEA organizer Valerie Wilk will be visiting USF during the week of September 27 – October 1; discussion of her schedule.

Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Discussion of the situation.

Reports.

• Communications. Discussion of communications.
• Treasury. We are solvent.
• Greivances. Discussion of current grievances.

These minutes respectfully submitted by G. McColm on September 29, 2010.

One colleague had problems earlier today logging into the ratification site and received a “session timed out” error message. The response from the tech support for votingplace.net:

[Your colleague's] browser is set to reject all cookies. She can change this by googling ‘enable cookies’, finding the instructions for her type of web browser, and allowing cookies either for all sites or for the domain votingplace.net

Earlier today, the United Faculty of Florida and the USF Board of Trustees signed off on the last pieces of a tentative agreement for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement to run 2010-2013. Descriptions of changes in the new contract (if ratified) and links to relevant documents are on the ratification page. Most of this round’s bargaining history is on the bargaining page.

Click on this link to vote. You will need the seven-character ratification code sent to in-unit employees in late August. Click on this link to request another copy of your code (please submit the request by the end of Tuesday, September 28). Voting will be open through the end of business Tuesday, October 5.

As chapter president, I strongly recommend voting to approve the contract. The statewide executive director, Ed Mitchell, also recommends voting to approve the contract. This is not a perfect contract. While it puts the domestic partner health insurance stipend program and expanded sabbaticals into the collective bargaining agreement as permanent language, and it has merit raises to base salaries for 2010-11 and 2011-12, it does not have the raises I think are just and appropriate for promoted instructors.

This is a tough bargaining environment, and this contract is the best or close to the best I think we could have gotten. The chapter agreed to a reduction in the release units and other concessions to preserve the existing layoff language and other important rights. The tentative agreement is much better than the likely alternative we faced at the time of the agreement (the end of the impasse process), and it is far better than what would happen if the agreement is rejected and we return to impasse. I urge all faculty and professional employees in the unit to vote for the tentative agreement.

Attendance.
There were nine members in attendance, including eight of the Chapter Council, insufficient for a quorum. The UFF Executive Director was also present.

Membership.
Members driving a substantial distance to the reception on September 22 are to be reimbursed for mileage.

• Motion made and seconded to authorize the Service Committee to use $ 250 towards entertainment at the reception on September 22. Motion approved.
• Motion made and seconded to extend the deadline for receiving the new members’ rebate to September 30. Motion approved.

Thus any employee who joins by September 30 and who remains a member through the term shall receive the $ 300 rebate at the end of the semester.

Critical Issues.
Discussion.

Reports.

• Communications. Discussion of communications.
• Grievances. Discussion of grievances and anomalies.
• Treasury. We are solvent.
• Bargaining. Discussion of Bargaining.

These minutes respectfully submitted by G. McColm on September 21, 2010.

(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?”)

I am voting for the 2010-2013 CBA tentative agreement as a reasonable agreement in very hard times. Bargaining for a successor to the 2008-09 collective bargaining agreement began in May 2009, and bargaining in the last 16 months has been difficult. This is the worst economy in the state for decades, and a number of unions in Florida have either declared impasse or had their employers declare impasse on bargaining. So the fact that the Board of Trustees declared impasse June 1, 2010, is in part a sign of the times.

There are several parts of the proposal that are imperfect from my perspective, most importantly the unequal promotion raises (6% for instructors, 9% plus flat additions for other ranked faculty) and the summer salary cap for the next three years. They are balanced by the gains: increased sabbaticals, retained layoff protection for senior instructors, small raises for this year and next, and making the domestic partner health insurance stipend a permanent part of the contract beyond the ratified MOU. This is not a great contract in comparison with other years for many unions. But it is a contract that retains important protections, makes some small advances, and provides sunset dates for two of the provisions that I think need sunset dates rather than permanent status (supplemental summer teaching pay caps and administrative discretion for pay increases).

When we prepared for the impasse process in June, July, and August, I made sure that going through impasse would be as painful as possible for management without stepping over legal or my personal ethical boundaries. That doesn’t mean that completing the impasse process would have been wise for UFF. The executive director of UFF and I were representing union interests in the second of three days of formal hearings in the impasse process when an opportunity for a settlement arose. It was clearly imperfect, but it was there, and it’s a sane individual who can prepare a solid campaign but step back from the brink of war. Thus, I am voting to ratify the tentative agreement because it is the best or close to the best agreement that was possible at this point in time.

(Note: The chapter’s descriptive entry on the 2010-13 CBA tentative agreement has a growing set of comments.)