UNIT TIES

published by the
Portland State University Chapter of the
American Association of University Professors
MARCH 2000

Faculty Compensation:

Can The Oregon University System Afford It?

PSU-AAUP contracted PBI Associates to analyze the financial condition of the Oregon University System and Portland State University over the last five years. This information was vital for use by the AAUP Bargaining Team in developing salary proposals for the 1999-2001 contract negotiations.

Here are some of the findings of the study:

OUS kept $19 million in unrestricted funds for non-education uses instead of improving faculty pay & working conditions

Board & Chancellor's staff took $6 million more last year out of unrestricted education & general funds than in FY 97-98

OUS began the current academic year with $52.6 million in unrestricted funds -- equal to one-third of its $155m net assets

$5.7 million more were transferred unnecessarily from OUS's unrestricted general fund before the academic year began

OUS general fund resources to improve faculty pay & benefits would have been $21 million larger if the Board & Chancellor had not designated 50% more for auxiliaries than the year before

ATTENTION!!
FACULTY SENATE MEETING

Monday April 3, 3:00 pm, Cramer Hall 53

AAUP and PSU Administration will
report on prospects for settlement.

It is important that we have as many AAUP members present as possible.
Please come show your support!
And wear your button!

March 31 Legislative Forum: The Future of Higher Ed in Oregon

On March 31st from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m., PSU-AAUP is presenting a forum to discuss questions of the future of higher education in Oregon. Included in the discussion will be an update on the collective bargaining situation at Portland State University. The informal lunch meeting will feature a panel discussion with representation from State Legislators, PSU Faculty, and AAUP Executive Council. The Portland metropolitan area members of the legislature and candidates running for office have been invited to attend. The response has been positive.

The panel will be addressing several important questions: How do we create a strong system of higher education in Oregon? Where does the question of faculty compensation fit in the picture? How does the system deal with the fact that three of the seven universities have collective bargaining rights?

Join the AAUP Bargaining Team and the Legislative Committee for lunch. Bring your questions and comments. If you would like lunch, RSVP by March 27 to the AAUP Office (5-4414) or aaup@teleport.com.

MAD ABOUT YOU

Sarah Andrews-Collier, PSU-AAUP Interim President

I attended a meeting this past week where the agenda included budget proposals and the university's finances. The issue came upÑas it does of late at most meetingsÑof our inability to reach a collective bargaining settlement. AAUP members must always be prepared to engage with the odd detractor (an administrator more often than not), so this encounter was nothing new. What left me momentarily speechless, however, was the accusation that "faculty are mad" at the union. My question is, "About what?"

When bargaining concludes, I will be stepping down from the presidency of PSU-AAUP, after a term of almost two years. I couldn't feel more honored to have been entrusted with the well being of such a stupendous collection of individuals. I cannot say enough about your dedication to your teaching and your students, your profession, the university, the community, andÑdues-paying members or notÑto each other. You have set a high example of democratic practice and civic responsibility, and I have been privileged to bear witness to it.

I guess I must be mad...mad about you: the dedicated band of faculty negotiators, led by Gary Brodowicz, who have donated uncountable hours of your precious time (250 hours spent in formal planning and negotiation sessions alone). You volunteered for an activity that should logically take 6-8 months, but has gone on so far for 18, while the folks on other side of the table from you are working "in load" (and we won't discuss their salaries as compared to yoursÕ). You aren't asking for that muchÑyou are negotiating for the continuation of basic conditions of hire: fair pay, intact (not improved) medical benefits, preservation of faculty access to grievance procedures, (as of March 7, the Administration continues to assert their proposal to prohibit faculty from resolving disputes through the contractual and non-contractual procedures simultaneously), and preservation of timely notice for fixed-term faculty (until February 23, the Administration continued to assert their proposal to remove fixed-term faculty and Academic Professionals from the Promotion & Tenure Guidelines).

You are also negotiating for fair working conditions and fair play: salary parity with the rest of the state's professoriate, salary parity with returning faculty and new hires, a safe workplace, resources for faculty development, and regularity of working conditions (evaluations for all categories of faculty, not just those in tenure lines). You also sought tuition for dependents (which in the case of my children amounted to an untaxed employment benefit of $115,000 in 1988-1996). It looks as if that will finally come to pass from the effort of those "standing on the shoulders" of others, contract after contract. These are fairly basic needs for a working person, and fair requests coming from an assemblage of individuals with the kinds of job skills our members possess. Nobody is demanding exorbitant spending. These are issues of common decency. The status quo is not under threatÑexcept from erosion of our protections.

I am mad about you, Vice President for Grievances, Bob Liebman, who stepped into the breach and in your wildest dreams did not think the job would take the time and effort it has over the last 1+ year. And you, the AAUP Executive Council who not only donates your time to weekly meetings most of the year, but also to budget planning, membership recruitment, elections, collective bargaining support, short and long-range planning of chapter mission, legislative relations, training, labor relations research, researching for cheaper copying, computer training and upgrading, travel to local, statewide, and national meetings, etc., etc., etc.

And, I am mad about you, our entire membership and roster of supporters, who conduct yourselves in a perpetual state of service to your peers, your community, and your profession. You serve on chapter sub-committees, you contribute to activities initiated by the council, you are helping recruit new members, and you "hold the line" when we need to put on a public face. You include former members and you include administrators who have been excluded from membership, but you still do good work, advancing the principles laid out in the AAUP "Redbook." You support everybody at PSU: faculty, staff and studentsÑregardless of whether certain "faculty are mad" at the union or not.

What else is there to be mad about? That the 2% pay raise dictated by OUS for the year 2000 will be retroactive to February 2000, making it a few months late? (For me, a full Professor in my 20th year at PSU, that works out to about $115/month before taxes). Am I missing something?

SOLIDARITY ACTION

Gary Brodowicz, VP, Collective Bargaining

Thanks to all of you who attended our last bargaining support rally on February 23! Attendance at our rallies has steadily increased since December, and it demonstrates that many of you support AAUP's proposals and your bargaining team's efforts to reach agreement on a fair contract.

During the rally in front of the Library, I was asked an important question: "What can faculty do to show we are serious about our positions on the issues?" I think my seemingly inadequate attempt to provide an answer left many of you frustrated. Just a reminderÑ—here are some ways you can show your support:

I urge you to continue your efforts on these fronts, and send me your suggestions for ways to help. For example, one member stopped me at the rally and suggested that we organize an informational picketing effort in the park blocks. This is a great idea, but we need help from you. The bargaining team discussed this idea and agreed that it would have an impact if individuals would be willing to contribute 15-30 minutes during the lunch hour on one or more days of the week. If you would like to help out in this way, please call the AAUP office (5-4414) to volunteer. We need at least five volunteers to make this work, at least one person for each day of the week. In an effort to get things going, I am willing to volunteer my time on Tuesday afternoons from 12:00-12:30 if we can get four other members to help out.

Another member suggested that faculty refuse any new request for involvement in activities above and beyond that with which they are currently involved and/or contractually obligated, including additional contributions to existing efforts until agreement is reached. Some faculty members have already made this decision, and I am aware of several instances where invitations for faculty participation have been declined. In a note to colleagues, one member wrote,

"Each refusal is a message to that particular constituency about the administration's failure to take our work seriously. I encourage all of you to participate in this solidarity action and to send your statements to Gary at brodowiczg@pdx.edu."

I, too, have decided to demonstrate my commitment to AAUP by endorsing this action. The following is a template for my response to any new requests:

"Thank you for your invitation, but in an effort to demonstrate solidarity with AAUP and the work of its contract negotiating team, I have decided not to take on any additional responsibilities or extra involvement until an agreement is reached. This is no reflection on _________, and my decision should in no way be construed as an intention to target these valuable efforts. It was just coincidental that I received your request after I made this decision."

This action demonstrates support for AAUP and can be applied uniformly without targeting any particular campus group or activity. It is also a collective action that makes other faculty and staff on campus aware that we are serious about our commitment to the AAUP position on compensation and working conditions at PSU. If you decide to join me in this act of solidarity, then I ask that you consider making exceptions only in cases where your actions would negatively affect students or place an undue burden on classified staff.

If you have any questions or comments about the status of negotiations, please feel free to contact me. In the meantime, remember that you have a voice in determining how long this will go on.

LOBBYIST REPORT

Tom Barrows, Dave Barrows and Associates

The deadline to file for office in Oregon was Tuesday March 7, 2000 at 5:00 p.m. This was the time at which point all candidates for office had to be filed with the Secretary of State's office. We now know who is running for every office in the state and this gives us a fairly complete picture of the political landscape going into the May primary and the November general elections. This is important because there are a number of seats in the legislature in which no incumbent is running and the control of the legislature is in the balance. Now that we know who is running in each race, we can better predict what the makeup of the legislature will be, and begin to educate those that we think will be a part of it.

The present makeup of the Oregon House of Representatives is 35-25 Republican. There are a large number of seats presently held by Republicans that could be picked up by the Democrats. The number that could go the other way is much smaller. It is likely that the Democrats will make up some ground and close the gap, but it would appear, at this point, that the Republicans probably have a slight majority. In the Senate, the Republicans now hold a 17-13 edge. There are really only two seats that are up in the air, at this point. Both are presently in the hands of Republicans with the incumbents running for reelection. In both cases there is a strong challenge from a Democrat House member. There are no seats in the Senate presently held by Democrats that appear to be in jeopardy. This means that the makeup of the Senate will probably be somewhere between the present 17-13 Republican majority to a 15-15 split. If there is a tie, it will most likely be very difficult for the Senate to organize and it could mean a longer Session.

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS!

PSU-AAUP is proud to welcome the following new members:

Thomas Chenoweth Education
Roderick Franklin

Educational Equity Services

Cassandra Kennedy

Office of Research & Sponsored Projects

Karin Magaldi-Unger Theater Arts
Eric Mankowski

Psychology

Glenn Maynard

Education

Elizabeth Mead

Art

Leerom Medovoi

English

Mark Mentzer

Extended Studies/ Registration & Continuing ED

Deborah Miller

Continuing Education

Gary Nave

Education

Alicia Ortega

Admissions & Records

Daniel Overbay

Admissions & Records

Daniel Pirofsky

Art

Michael Pullman

Regional Research Institute

Clare Strawn

Linguistics/CLAS

Martin Streck

Geology

Jill Townley

Extended Studies/IELP

Suwako Watanabe

Foreign Languages & Literature

Collective Bargaining Report (19) - Mediation (4)

March 7, 2000

Gary Brodowicz, VP for Collective Bargaining

The 19th PSU-AAUP/PSU Administration bargaining session was held on Tuesday, March 7, 2000, from 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Here is a summary of what took place during 6 hours at the bargaining table, with an indication of where we stand.

AAUP presented a Mediation Salary Counterproposal:

After receiving our counterproposal dealing with the salary article, PSU responded with questions about the cost of the proposal. There was apparently some feeling that we increased our salary proposal, or that perhaps we didn't understand how costly our proposal was. After a brief discussion with the mediator, we arranged a meeting of representatives from PSU and AAUP for Monday, March 13.

We then worked on counterproposals, and delivered the following:

Our counterproposal on Article 12 (Academic Professionals), the new proposed system for academic professionals, was printed and delivered on 3-8-00.

We received responses on the following articles (page # refers to 1998-99 contract):

The next bargaining session is scheduled for Monday, March 20, from 11-5 p.m.

NOTE: Faculty negotiations for a 1999-2001 contract will see its 2nd Spring!

If you have any questions about the status of negotiations, please feel free to contact me or Glenna Getz at the AAUP office (5-4414). In the meantime, PLEASE remember to wear your buttons, and if you plan to participate in the "Solidarity Action", please e-mail me at brodowiczg@pdx.edu

Solidarity Action Response

by Gary Brodowicz, VP for Collective Bargaining

The immediate response to my call for solidarity has been enthusiastic and supportive. See for yourself…

"It seems the least I can do to support the valuable and persistent efforts of the bargaining team on our behalf."

"I like the idea and will refuse any future committee work…"

"Count me in…"

"I regret deeply having to take this step…it's now time for the faculty to stand together in solidarity. In [all] my years at PSU I must admit that I have never felt less valued and respected…"

"While I applaud your call for a new committee work stoppage, why stop at 'new' committee assignments? If you really want to get the attention of management, call for faculty to quit all committees that do not have a direct influence on students at PSU."

"…my disgust toward the administration and OUS…their clear disdain for hardworking faculty and the well-being of our students."

"I think we should have done it a long time ago."

"I plan to work less here at the University and put my priorities outside of a workplace that does not reward me fairly."

"If the PSU administration wants PSU to become a first class institution, the PSU administration needs to act like the administration from a first class institution."

Will the administration continue to ignore declining morale on this campus? Stay tuned.

Contact Information

PSU-AAUP encourages members of the bargaining unit to write, fax, or e-mail targeted individuals to express their views on the collective bargaining situation. Key points include:

One-page letters are best. Anecdotes from your personal experiences that illustrate your points are always effective. Remember to use personal (not PSU) stationery for your letters, and to send a copy of each letter to President Bernstine.