BARGAINING UPDATE
June 26, 2023
Takeaways:
First, here is your usual reminder to become a member of our union!
We met with the administration on Tuesday June 20th and Thursday June 22nd. Both sessions were productive as we continued to exchange articles on non-economic issues.
On Tuesday, we exchanged proposals on Full Time Appointment Stream appointments, promotions, and renewals; Part Time Appointment Stream Faculty; Visiting Faculty; and Performance Evaluation. We made significant progress on Workload, though we remain apart on whether or not there will be any limits on involuntary overloads, and we continue to make progress in aligning each side’s visions on timelines for appointments and promotions at each rank. We also continued the discussion on reasons for non-renewal as mentioned in the last bargaining update: while we were pleased to reach agreement that vague financial reasons can’t be a basis for non-renewal, we continue to have hard discussions as we consider the role of misconduct and discipline on renewal and non-renewal.
On Thursday, in addition to continued conversation about the Performance Evaluation and Workloads articles, we exchanged revisions to the Tenured and Tenure Stream Faculty proposals. Our approach in this work has been to protect the current tenure process and make sure that expectations are determined by departments and made clear to the faculty when they are hired and reviewed. One remaining sticking point is that the administration continues to insist on referencing documents outside of our CBA, and reserving the right to be able to change those documents at will without negotiating with our Union.
We were happy to make important progress in the Performance Evaluation article, specifically about the use of different types of evaluations of teaching. Our position has been that peer observations of teaching are an important component for evaluations. We were happy that the administration agreed that student surveys, while still a source of information, would not be the only or primary source for information about a classroom instructor’s teaching skills. Since student surveys can be inaccurate or subject to various forms of bias, we believe that it is important to have different ways to evaluate teaching.
We still have not received any response on the compensation proposal or other economic proposals that we presented to the administration last fall. The annual salary report demonstrates yet again the issues that we see in compensation across the entire university. We look forward to addressing this issue and locking in improvements for our bargaining unit for the next several years – we will get to work on this as soon as the administration comes to the table with their counter proposal. It is unlikely that we will come to a tentative agreement on the full contract by July, when the administration normally decides on annual raises for staff and faculty outside of the bargaining unit. Negotiating our annual raises as part of our larger contract negotiations gives us the power to push for higher raises, to lock in annual raises for multiple years in advance, and to negotiate salaries as part of our broader compensation package, which includes health insurance, retirement, and other benefits. We will push for these raises to be retroactive to the start of the 23-24 academic year.
Our next bargaining session is scheduled for July 11. Wherever this update finds you, we hope you take a moment to reflect on how your participation in our Union makes a better university possible. We hope you’ll sign your membership card if you haven’t already, and share your thoughts on these issues with us and with your other colleagues. When we stand together, we progress together.
In solidarity,
Your bargaining committee
Tyler Bickford (chair), Professor, English, Oakland
Nicholas Bircher, Part-time Professor, Nurse Anesthesia, Oakland
Lauren Collister, Faculty Librarian, ULS, Oakland
Anthony Fabio, Associate Professor, Epidemiology (Public Health), Oakland
Lech Harris (secretary), Part-time Instructor, English, Oakland
James Hill (archivist), Visiting Assistant Professor, History, Oakland
Haitao Liu, Professor, Chemistry, Oakland
Megan O’Brien, Master Teacher, Falk Laboratory School, Oakland
Stephen Robar, Associate Professor, Political Science, Bradford
Sabrina Robinson, Part-time Instructor, Slavic, Oakland
Evan Schneider, Assistant Professor, Physics and Astronomy, Oakland
Paul Scott, Assistant Professor, Health and Community Systems (Nursing), Oakland
Jeffrey Shook, Professor, Social Work, Oakland
Stacey Triplette, Associate Professor, Spanish, Greensburg
Abagael West, Teaching Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences, Oakland
Links!
- Student surveys, while still a source for feedback, cannot be the sole or primary basis for an unsatisfactory performance evaluation.
- Our annual raises for the upcoming academic year will likely be negotiated as part of larger contract negotiations. We will push for these raises to be retroactive to the start of the 23-24 academic year.
First, here is your usual reminder to become a member of our union!
We met with the administration on Tuesday June 20th and Thursday June 22nd. Both sessions were productive as we continued to exchange articles on non-economic issues.
On Tuesday, we exchanged proposals on Full Time Appointment Stream appointments, promotions, and renewals; Part Time Appointment Stream Faculty; Visiting Faculty; and Performance Evaluation. We made significant progress on Workload, though we remain apart on whether or not there will be any limits on involuntary overloads, and we continue to make progress in aligning each side’s visions on timelines for appointments and promotions at each rank. We also continued the discussion on reasons for non-renewal as mentioned in the last bargaining update: while we were pleased to reach agreement that vague financial reasons can’t be a basis for non-renewal, we continue to have hard discussions as we consider the role of misconduct and discipline on renewal and non-renewal.
On Thursday, in addition to continued conversation about the Performance Evaluation and Workloads articles, we exchanged revisions to the Tenured and Tenure Stream Faculty proposals. Our approach in this work has been to protect the current tenure process and make sure that expectations are determined by departments and made clear to the faculty when they are hired and reviewed. One remaining sticking point is that the administration continues to insist on referencing documents outside of our CBA, and reserving the right to be able to change those documents at will without negotiating with our Union.
We were happy to make important progress in the Performance Evaluation article, specifically about the use of different types of evaluations of teaching. Our position has been that peer observations of teaching are an important component for evaluations. We were happy that the administration agreed that student surveys, while still a source of information, would not be the only or primary source for information about a classroom instructor’s teaching skills. Since student surveys can be inaccurate or subject to various forms of bias, we believe that it is important to have different ways to evaluate teaching.
We still have not received any response on the compensation proposal or other economic proposals that we presented to the administration last fall. The annual salary report demonstrates yet again the issues that we see in compensation across the entire university. We look forward to addressing this issue and locking in improvements for our bargaining unit for the next several years – we will get to work on this as soon as the administration comes to the table with their counter proposal. It is unlikely that we will come to a tentative agreement on the full contract by July, when the administration normally decides on annual raises for staff and faculty outside of the bargaining unit. Negotiating our annual raises as part of our larger contract negotiations gives us the power to push for higher raises, to lock in annual raises for multiple years in advance, and to negotiate salaries as part of our broader compensation package, which includes health insurance, retirement, and other benefits. We will push for these raises to be retroactive to the start of the 23-24 academic year.
Our next bargaining session is scheduled for July 11. Wherever this update finds you, we hope you take a moment to reflect on how your participation in our Union makes a better university possible. We hope you’ll sign your membership card if you haven’t already, and share your thoughts on these issues with us and with your other colleagues. When we stand together, we progress together.
In solidarity,
Your bargaining committee
Tyler Bickford (chair), Professor, English, Oakland
Nicholas Bircher, Part-time Professor, Nurse Anesthesia, Oakland
Lauren Collister, Faculty Librarian, ULS, Oakland
Anthony Fabio, Associate Professor, Epidemiology (Public Health), Oakland
Lech Harris (secretary), Part-time Instructor, English, Oakland
James Hill (archivist), Visiting Assistant Professor, History, Oakland
Haitao Liu, Professor, Chemistry, Oakland
Megan O’Brien, Master Teacher, Falk Laboratory School, Oakland
Stephen Robar, Associate Professor, Political Science, Bradford
Sabrina Robinson, Part-time Instructor, Slavic, Oakland
Evan Schneider, Assistant Professor, Physics and Astronomy, Oakland
Paul Scott, Assistant Professor, Health and Community Systems (Nursing), Oakland
Jeffrey Shook, Professor, Social Work, Oakland
Stacey Triplette, Associate Professor, Spanish, Greensburg
Abagael West, Teaching Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences, Oakland
Links!
- If someone forwarded this to you, sign up to receive these emails
- Find previous bargaining updates here
- Status of bargaining
- Get in touch with your Council rep
- Get involved with the Communication and Action Team
|
