*click image above to download a PDF copy of this newsletter*
Message from the President:
The Whole Nation’s Going the Way of PSU
Mary King, President
The University of Oregon faculty have just organized into a union, represented jointly by the AAUP and the AFT. Our national AAUP staff are going crazy, running around the country to work with faculty who want to join a union. According to Angela Hewett, AAUP National Organizer, a group of UCSD science faculty have committed to foregoing research efforts for two years, to work on organizing their campus.
Around the nation, faculty are all looking to organizing in order to more effectively deal with the same issues we’ve been facing for years at PSU: drastic cuts in public funding, a shift away from tenure-track and full-time faculty to short contracts and part-timers, prioritization of administrative hires and buildings over investment in faculty and the classroom, rising tuition and student debt, bigger classes and pressure to shift on-line, and endless demands to accomplish more with less.
PSU is offering retirement incentives to thin the ranks, supplemented by layoffs and cuts – based on dire projections of a budget deficit that require ridiculously unlikely assumptions about our future. We’re about to sell our soul to enter into a deal on “urban renewal” that will cost our schools, city and county health programs $229 million in foregone property taxes.
We have a year until we’re once more in bargaining for our next contract. Let’s use this year to talk together about what’s going on; learn new skills; bring in speakers to find out more about how other people are dealing with these issues; research exactly what’s happening at PSU; collaborate with the PSU Administration as best we can to advocate for high quality, affordable, public higher education in Oregon; nurture our ties with students, other unions and community groups; and – most importantly – build our community and networks among ourselves so that we will be stronger next year at the bargaining table
See you soon - in a meeting, at a workshop or a talk, at a mixer or at a rally! Mary
A Cartoonists View of PSU
Susan Harlan, Professor, Art Department
From Record-Breaking Surplus to Deep in Deficit in 3 Years????
Mary King, President
On February 29th, Vice President Rimai and Vice Provost Reynolds presented a Base Case Scenario for the “Education and General Funds” portion of the University’s Budget, including the shocking prediction that by June 2015, PSU will be over $23 million in the red. That’s a forecast of a decline of $85 million dollars in reserves, from the $52.8 million reserve currently projected for June 2012.
An AAUP member commented during bargaining that the Administration would never again make the mistake of clearly demonstrating that they had a reserve of nearly 20% of operating revenue, and now we see that’s true.
And – of course – the presentation of this budget provides the chance to implicitly vilify the union, as seen in the claim on PSU’s web page that “increasing salary, benefits and retirement costs are projected to push the fund deep into the red in three years.”
The Provost has said that this budget is “low probability” and not the basis for planning. According to him, planning based on the Base Case Budget Scenario presented in the Budget Forum would mean 7% cuts for each of three years, rather than 4%.
David Hansen, member of both the Faculty Senate Budget Committee and the AAUP Bargaining Team, has showed that very small, plausible tweaks to the Base Case Budget Scenario result in a healthy surplus.
And what do you know, the May OUS Board materials show PSU on track to end this academic year with a surplus of over 18% of operating revenues, with revenue from tuition and fees up 4% over their projection.
If we don’t think that enrollment and research overhead are going to increase, why have we invested so heavily in highly paid administrators in these areas? Don’t we expect them to accomplish anything?
It’s hard not to think that this budget is political theater, designed to distract people from the high surpluses that PSU has been running while creating an environment of financial crisis, facilitating cuts and the reallocation of resources.
PSU has a long history of defensive budgeting – overestimating costs and underestimating revenues, presumably in order to hide funds from OUS, the state and itself – trying to gain some maneuvering room while always doing too much with too little.
PSU faculty members have paid the price – most recently when we took a furlough and a biennium-long wage freeze, only to find we had $18 million in “over-realized tuition revenue.”
Assistant Professor Jenn Schuberth’s open letter to President Wiewel in the Oregonian – see here – makes the case forcefully that the University is headed in the wrong direction.
We’re going to have to be organized and active in order to ensure that PSU’s priority is building public support for high quality academics, rather than expanding our upper-level administrative ranks to pursue adventures in real estate.
click the flier above for a PDF copy you can print!
Retirement Incentive Plan: A Letter to AAUP Members
Ron Narode, VP for Collective Bargaining
Your Collective Bargaining Team, consisting of Sy Adler, David Hanson, Mary King, Phil Lesch, Bob Liebman, Anh Ly, and myself, met with our PSU Administration counterparts to negotiate the terms of a Retirement Incentive Offer (RIO).
Our negotiations were successful in obtaining two options: a cash-out or a medical plan assistance. While we were unsuccessful in our press for more cash and a richer medical plan, we were successful in creating more flexibility for the medical plan as well as some safeguards for possible changes in the future that might compromise it due to plan or tax law alterations. We also assured that those people on 9-month salary could include all of their PSU income including summer session when determining the cash-out option.
Please read the offer in its entirety to see all of the conditions before making your election. Meanwhile, the bare bones of the agreement:
Option 1: One-time Cash --- 1.5% of average of last three years PSU annual income times the number of years of service with $10,000 minimum and $40,000 maximum.
Option 2: Health Care allowance of $990/month for up to 3 years to be used on PEBB plans toward individual or family plans.
Note: special conditions apply, so please read the offer carefully by clicking on the link below.
The final offer is described in an email sent to eligible members, and described further here http://www.pdx.edu/hr/sites/www.pdx.edu.hr/files/RIO%20Detail%202012.pdf
I would like to thank all of the people at the bargaining table for making the time to effect such a swift resolution.
Finally, please note that this offer is TIME SENSITIVE - June 7, 2012 is the final day to elect the benefit. There will be information sessions available through Human Resources.
PSU and PDC’s Education Urban Renewal Area Plan:
A Deal with the Devil?
Mary King, President
On April 17th--after being chastised in the Oregonian for rushing an unscrutinized deal through the official hoops with exceptionally little public process--Mayor Sam Adams, President Wiewel and representatives of the Portland Development Commission (PDC) went public with the plan for an “Education Urban Renewal Area” around PSU.
The idea is to use $229 million in property tax reductions to lure private developers into partnership with the City and PSU for real estate projects around PSU. The Portland Public Schools alone stand to lose $75 million, a shocking amount while schools are laying off more teachers, raising class sizes, eliminating Outdoor School and educational offerings.
Critics of this kind of urban renewal point out the risks that out of state developers make large profits, construction hiring does not prioritize local or under-represented populations, public funding for schools, health care and other services is slashed and promises for affordable housing and amenities like parks are frequently not met.
The League of Women Voters of Portland have come out against this proposal, calling urban renewal “the wrong financing tool for PSU and the city”. Check out what they had to say in this article:
http://lwvpdx.org/issues-and-advocacy/action-committee-news/testimony/2012-04-psu-ura
Is this really the best way forward for PSU?
Legislative Report
Phil Lesch, Executive Director
We will see a number of changes to the Oregon higher education system as a result of this year’s short February session. PSU-AAUP participated in, and continues to participate in conversations around all of these changes.
Some of the most important changes are:
HB 4057. PSU-AAUP was a sponsor of this bill. In its original form it required OUS to break out the demographic data on the Unrepresented Unclassified and Unrepresented Excluded populations of employees at each institution so we could track the growth of administration. OUS agreed to do that in a letter to the legislature, which, in turn, enabled this bill to be used to extend the deadline on the report to the legislature about the possibility of OUS carve outs for Healthcare benefits and retirement. The letter to the legislature about the demographic data is what is important. Starting next year we will be able to directly gauge the growth of administration and establish accurate student/administrator and faculty/administrator ratios.
HB 4059. This bill does two things: 1. Creates a mechanism for the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) to develop criteria and procedures to give students’ academic credit for prior learning; and 2. Directs the HECC to develop a proposal for a partnership with Western Governors University (WGU). Both of these sections were driven by the legislature’s intent to increase degree completion as required by the 40-40-20 mandate in SB 253 last session. PSU-AAUP expects to be involved in the development of the proposal for WGU once the HECC is empaneled in July 2012.
HB 4061. This bill establishes the Special Legislative Committee on University Governance whose purpose is to review issues of governance in the Oregon Higher Education System and recommend legislation for the creation of local governing boards at public universities that want them. PSU-AAUP expects to be involved with this special committee to promote faculty interests with the creation of any local board structure.
HB 4131. This bill restricts hiring and requires layoffs of supervisory employees for the purpose of attaining a ratio of 11 to 1 of non-supervisory employees to supervisory employees. This bill aims to reverse the administrative bloat in Oregon state agencies and is a foot hold for a similar kind of measure for the university system in the future.
SB 1538. This bill expands and clarifies the role of the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) in light of the authority of the Oregon Education Investment Board (OEIB). This bill reconciles many of the conflicts between SB 242 and SB 909 and the two boards that these separate bills created.
SB 1548. This bill prohibits publication of any advertisement for a job vacancy that limits applicants to persons who are not currently unemployed.
SB 1581. Probably the most important bill of the session, this statute defines the scope of the position of the Chief Education Officer, and puts in place a requirement for each education entity in the State of Oregon to engage in an achievement compact with the OEIB for continued funding. PSU-AAUP has been integrally involved in the negotiation of the achievement compact OUS and the seven separate institutions and will continue to participate through full implementation of the bill on July 1, 2012.
Trying to Talk Sense in Salem:
G.L.A. Harris, Associate Professor. Member, Task Force on Higher Education Student and Institutional Success and Member PSU-AAUP Executive Council
G.L.A Harris, PSU-AAUP Executive Councilor
Dear Colleagues:
I hate to be bearer of not so good news but my experience on the Task Force on Higher Education Student and Institutional Success is telling me that the die has already been cast. While the Task Force members are appointed by the Governor to represent their constituencies, as it appears, the Task Force members are not being allowed to determine what issues should be addressed. Few of the controversial issues raised by the members and by me, specifically, have been included in the Task Force’s working document. Here are some examples of the issues that are not being addressed:
Administrative Bloat
I have repeatedly raised the problem of administrative bloat. During the initial meetings, I was given some deference. However, nowhere in this current report is there mention of administrative bloat. My concern, of course, is the explosion of high level administrative posts at Portland State University in light of what we have been repeatedly told are funding pressures, contrary to the robust funding reserve. Given these new administrative positions, there have been no commensurate increases in either tenure line or fixed term faculty positions nor has there been any push to address the problem of the inordinate use of contingent faculty. Using OUS’ own data, only 35 percent of funding is being devoted to classroom instruction while a whopping 65 percent of funding represents administration. These actions are not in keeping with the University’s mission.
Faculty Recruitment and Retention
I have raised the following concerns about faculty recruitment and retention:
- Provide the infrastructure necessary for emphasis on recruitment and retention by bringing faculty compensation up to market levels of peer institutions.
- Reduce attrition rates for especially underrepresented minority (URM) (Native Americans, African Americans and Hispanics) and women faculty.
- Pay immediate attention to the mentoring of new and incoming faculty by more senior and tenured faculty as part of the efforts for retention.
- Eliminate the practice of offering one year contracts to fixed term faculty by employing faculty on a multiyear contractual basis.
- Reduce the disproportionate use of contingent faculty.
- In addition to decreasing the teaching load for faculty-- included in the current iteration of the Task Force’s working document-- reduce the class sizes for each course, especially at the undergraduate level, to ensure that quality education is being provided to all Oregonians.
Balanced Focus on Student Recruitment
- Develop a system that incentivizes OUS universities to focus on attracting and educating Oregonians to higher education. Nothing is wrong with recruiting out of state and international students. However, such recruitment should not come at the expense of attracting and educating Oregonians.
- Promote the importance and rewards of having an educated citizenry especially in light of the fact that, as a state, Oregon is not only competing on a national level but increasingly at the global level as well.
- Have an educated citizenry and workforce that will in turn attract more employers, both public and private, to the state.
At this point, the question that you’re probably asking yourselves is why am I still on the Task Force when the decisions appear to be a done deal? My hope, the eternal optimist that I am, is that if I keep revisiting these issues, hopefully the politicians on the Task Force will take notice. Representative Michael Dembrow introduced HB 4057 because I kept hammering the problem of administrative bloat. He has also concurred with me on the need to support veterans who are attending the OUS institutions.
So, stay tuned! I will continue to update you as the time advances.
Treasurer’s Report
Vincent Fritzsche, Treasurer
I'm delighted to report that PSU-AAUP ended 2011 in increasingly sound financial health, with a budgetary surplus due to lower than expected expenses and slightly higher than expected income. We are using that surplus to continue to build reserves for the future, which executive director Phil Lesch and I have identified as a strategic priority for the organization as we head into future contract and workload negotiations.
This past year, our 2010 financial documents received a favorable review from our independent auditor, Jarrard, Seibert, Pollard & Co. We will engage the firm in an audit of our 2011 finances and expect a similar result. Additionally, our membership levels continue to grow, now well into the 60% range of all represented, which gives us increasing leverage in all negotiations with the university. All told, our financial position is strong and bodes well for our future.
Update on Grievances
Judy Patton, PSU-AAUP VP for Grievances
Although grievances are by their nature confidential and sensitive situations, we can report on some of the kinds of issues that members are currently working with the union to address. Recently these include:
a) protection of intellectual property,
b) students complaints of discrimination,
c) premature use of new titles for fixed term faculty before the promotion and tenure guidelines have been established for these titles, and
d) shifting jobs from Academic Professional status out of the bargaining unit.
Intellectual Property
A fixed term faculty member who had developed a fully online program was released from service after many years to be replaced by the course materials he had loaded to D2L and video recordings of his lectures. PSU-AAUP grieved violations of Article 18, 20, 22, 23, and 27. On the precipice of filing for arbitration we reached a non-precedential settlement that provides the faculty member an additional year of employment and an agreement that the University will not be using materials the employee considered to be his intellectual property from his work prior to his release.
This case is a cautionary tale for faculty. The University took the position in this case that anything created by faculty pursuant to their job description/appointment letter can be used freely by the University. We disputed that position. In the settlement, the parties agreed to reserve their respective positions regarding their dispute over ownership and use of intellectual property. IP should be a continuing concern.
Student complaints of Discrimination
Over the last six months a number of students were removed from various programs for such reasons as failure to earn minimum grades, failure to attend classes or field placements, or other minimum performance requirements. A number of these students filed complaints against PSU, the programs from which they were removed, and the faculty in the programs alleging discrimination based upon a variety of protected classes in Title VI from the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The office of Equity and Compliance, a sub office of the Office of Global Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) is responsible for investigating such complaints. A large number of AAUP members have gone through interviews, and PSU-AAUP representatives attended each one of them. So far all the complaints have been baseless. PSU-AAUP continues to participate in OSI hearings when asked by faculty to do so, and encourages all AAUP bargaining unit members to take advantage of their ability to have representation should they be called to participate in any interview with ODI or management.
Fixed term Clinical Professor of Practice Position
The SBHE adopted revised OAR 580-020-0005 in January allowing Universities on a permissive basis to create a number of new ranks and positions. This revision triggers a Faculty Senate Process to revise the OSU Promotion and Tenure Guidelines to incorporate the new ranks, titles and promotional schemes that make sense at PSU which, in turn, triggers the need to bargain those salary and terms for those positions for incorporation in the CBA.
A department anxious to use the title jumped the gun and created a “Clinical Assistant Professor” position on their own. PSU and PSU-AAUP negotiated and agreed that the department will use the “Clinical Assistant Professor” as a WORKING TITLE in the rank of Assistant Professor to hire the positions that have already been posted, and that these positions will be grandfathered into the salary and terms we negotiate at a later date later for the RANK of Clinical Assistant Professor when all the changes brought by the 580-020-0005 revision come to the bargaining table.
UnUn/UnEx no longer performing excluding duties brought into AAUP bargaining unit
An Unclassified Unrepresented employee was hired to do work that was performed by certain academic professionals in our bargaining unit as well as supervisory duties and certain management duties that excluded the position from the bargaining unit because of rules established in the Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act (PECBA).
A reorganization and additional management personnel led to the removal of the exclusionary duties from the employees job description. PSU-AAUP pursued informal meetings prior to filing a formal grievance and Unit Clarification Petition with the Employment Relations Board, and those informal meetings led to an agreement between PSU and PSU-AAUP to bring the position and its occupant into the bargaining unit. We are working out the final details and it should be finalized this month.
2011-2013 CBA Contract Ratified!
We had a record turn out of more than 600 members who cast votes in the ratification ballot. The contract was ratified with more than 90% of the vote. To see the vote results in your own section, visit www.ballotbin.com or click the link in your invitation to vote email from ballotbin.
In anticipation of ratification, the Human Resources Department has been working to add the increases into paychecks so that changes will show up in your next paycheck. Please check your online paystub to make sure the change was made correctly, and follow up with Human Resources immediately if it was not.
If you would like to view the contract in its entirety, please click below:
2011-2013 CBA Contract
Governor’s Task Force on
Higher Education Institutional and Student Success
G.L.A. Harris, Ph.D, Associate Professor, Mark O. Hatfield School of Government
PSU-AAUP Appointee Interim Report
I am one of 17 members on the Task Force that emanated from House Bill 3418 which mandated the following:
• To explore best practices and models for achieving the Governor’s goals for Educational attainment: 20% of Oregonians with a just a high school diploma, 40% with an associate degree, and 40% with bachelor’s degree (or higher) by 2025.
• To examine the barriers that hinder student and institutional success
• To look at those methods that assist students in acquiring basic and career preparation skills
• To investigate alternative avenues as conduits for students and promote “best practices
• To review funding streams in other states toward student and institutional success
We’ve had two meetings and created an interim report for the legislature identifyng the overarching barriers or “Big Rocks” that are not only likely to have the greatest impact on student success and thus institutional success but have initially identified corresponding long-term actions or strategies for overcoming them as well. You can review the report yourself here, but I wanted to share the specific issues that I raised that would not have been broached had PSU-AAUP not secured my seat at the table.
• The state needs to return to its core mission of educating Oregonians by investing in more resources in education
• Educating the citizenry is an imperative of government because doing so will create public value which constitutes a public good, not a private good
• Administrative bloat greatly undermines the state’s core mission of educating its citizenry and more resources should be dedicated to classroom instruction instead of administrators’ salaries.
These issues, however, were omitted from the interim report. I have had to fight with OUS administrators, who support this committee, from including anything remotely negative about administration. Though they were not included in this first interim report, I was promised by those at the helm that these barriers will be revisited during future and more detail-oriented meetings where the barriers will be further refined.
The problem of administrative bloat was a particularly sensitive issue, so much so that I had to repeatedly hammer the point. Somebody listened… a legislative concept, LC 261, is proposed that will look at the demographics of administration, along with all other employee groups, and report back to the legislature. The term “administrative bloat” is conspicuously absent from the interim report though that was exactly how it was couched in task force discussions.
I was successful in getting the following documented in the interim report:
• Provide more targeted funding to specific student success strategies while seeking to reduce administrative costs
• Increase diversity of the faculty and create an inclusive environment to support their success
• Improve the professional development and mentoring for all faculty/instructors to ensure quality faculty, with emphasis on new and incoming faculty
• Focus on the results/outcomes, not on reports
• Limit tuition increases to make higher education for Oregonians not only accessible but affordable as well
• Ensure that faculty salaries are in alignment with industry and other institutions in order to draw candidates and retain them
• Increase advising and placement professionals
• Find ways of rewarding faculty for teaching success to avoid the uneven emphasis on research success
• Increase resources for instruction by reducing administrative costs in order to ensure that adequate resources are dedicated to classroom instruction and to eliminate any disproportionate costs for administrative functions or administrators
• Consider income based student debt repayment
• Where possible, redirect unrestricted funds to support instruction and advising
• Provide fixed term faculty with multiyear contracts instead of one year contracts to provide for greater stability and incentives. Doing so benefits both faculty and students
• Reduce the teaching load and class sizes for faculty to allow for greater interaction with students and ensure that the quality of education is not eroded
• Reduce the use of contingent/part-time faculty to ensure that students have access to both tenured and tenure track faculty. Doing so will result in greater stability for both faculty and students
• Eliminate redundancies and organizational silos that impede efficiency and use those resources for instruction; flatten all organizational silos wherever possible
Western Governors University (WGU) has recently surfaced as an option that the House Committee on Higher Education is taking very seriously. It presented this information on November 18, 2011. The committee, subsequently, created LC 287 to explore a potential partnership between Oregon and WGU- the creation of an 8th virtual OUS campus. WGU touts its accessibility and affordability for prospective students with the promise of the completion of a bachelor’s degree in 2.5 years without access to faculty. WGU claims to be accredited but will not release its accreditation information. With a graduation rate of 22%, what is at issue is the quality of instruction and hence the quality of education being offered by WGU. I plan to raise this issue at the upcoming Task Force meeting on February 3, 2012.
Should you have any questions and/or would like to make comments, please do not hesitate
to contact me at glah@pdx.edu. Thank you.
If PSU can afford to invest in real estate, we can afford to invest in our faculty
The Portland State University chapter of the Association of American University Professors has been engaged in collective bargaining with the university since last April, in an effort to secure a contract agreement for the new biennium. With the current contract set to expire on Oct. 31, and university administrators and faculty union representatives at loggerheads, it appears that another deadline extension may be on the horizon. (continued)
University of Oregon President Richard Lariviere is strongly defending his decision to grant raises to hundreds of faculty and administrators, saying the raises were necessary to hold on to top teachers and managers and that the UO could afford them.
“It would have been egregious for the UO to have simply grown its reserves in an environment when our faculty and staff are being asked to do more,” Lariviere wrote. “The decision to invest some of these resources in our human infrastructure is appropriate, warranted, and good for the state.”
PSU-AAUP 2011 Membership Campaign
100 By Halloween!
PSU-AAUP is launching our annual membership drive to recruit 100 new members by Halloween. As you know membership to PSU-AAUP gives us strength at the bargaining table and supports a vibrant and active faculty union. Recruiting your colleagues helps us all, but now could also benefit you!
Membership applications can be found here. When you get a colleague to sign up for membership write your name on the top right hand corner of the application. For each new member you recruit PSU-AAUP will give you a $10 gift card to one of the stores listed below.
• Powell’s Bookstore
• Starbucks
• Amazon
• PSU Bookstore
• Whole Foods
• Apple Store
New members have incentives to join now! The usual membership benefits such as regalia reimbursement, the right to vote, the right to serve on committees and elected positions, and membership to National AAUP still stand. There is also the fact that the dues deduction level will not change when an individual signs up for membership so there is no reason for our colleagues to sit out!
Finally, new members who join by Halloween will be entered into a raffle for an IPAD or one of five $20 Starbucks gift cards. The raffle will be held at a PSU-AAUP social event on Halloween afternoon at 4:00pm.
• Please utilize the attached talking points to help you in your recruitment efforts.
• If you would like a list of non-members in your department, or other area you are familiar with, please email Jonathan Uto at utoj@pdx.edu.
• If you need hard copies of member applications, talking points, or other material please email Tita Compere at tita@psuaaup.net and she can send them to you via campus mail.
We look forward to your help in building our membership and strength at the bargaining table over the coming months!
In Solidarity,
Jonathan Uto
PSU-AAUP President
P.S. – Are you a superstar membership recruiter? We can discuss a possible course release or 1/3 FTE reduction for you, paid for by PSU-AAUP to your department, to perform membership recruitment. Email Jonathan Uto at utoj@pdx.edu if you are interested.
If you would like to download a "PSU-AAUP Talking Points" flyer for recruitment assistance,
please click here!
Howard Bunsis PSU 2011 Budget Audit
Dear Colleagues,
You've heard the talk and seen the figures: State funding is down by a whopping 25 percent this year, and we're all going to have to tighten our belts.
Well, we're not having it.
Last Friday Howard Bunsis, of the national AAUP, presented a summary of an audit performed on PSU by PSU's very own auditing service. The result? PSU has posted profits for the past five years in a row. State funding has dropped, to be sure. But PSU coffers are overflowing with increased tuition dollars from an ever-expanding student body. Last year we added 30 million dollars to the 60 million we already had in reserves. Moreover, our profit rate has been increasing year by year. Last year's gains were up 7% over the year before. "Walmart would love to be able to post these kinds of figures," as Bunsis said.
During our last bargaining session, the union agreed to a furlough, with 95% member support. That very year, PSU realized 16.6 million dollars in tuition profit!
The most damning statistic of all: PSU is investing a smaller and smaller percentage of its overall budget into instructional costs. Every year, they put a smaller slice of those tuition dollars back in the classroom. You all know what that means for faculty: increased enrollments in your classes, a heavier workload. What it means for students: they're paying more for less.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
• Reject the logic of scarcity. At faculty meetings and at every level of faculty governance: demand that administration invest in the university's core mission: providing quality education to students.
• SUPPORT THE UNION! We have 99 more days until our contract runs out. We need a strong show of solidarity from our members. Attend collective bargaining sessions. Wear your union t-shirts; bring your mugs (we'll provide them if you don't have them). And check out our website to stay abreast of current events. We need to make our presence felt.
• Join the debate! We need your ideas, energy and creativity to make it clear that we won't sacrifice quality education to market logic. We meet on the first Thursday of every month at Paccini's, from 4 to 6.
As a union, we're only as strong as our members. Become active today!
If you we're unable to attend the Audit presentation, please look over the slides that Bunsis presented here:
FULL version
ABRIDGED version
