Bargaining Report #9:
At our ninth Bargaining Session, October 4, 2013, more than 150 of our members came to support our PSU-AAUP Bargaining Team. From 12:15 until 12:45, they lined the hallway outside the bargaining room in the Market Center Building holding signs and chanting for a fair contract. The Administration’s team was unwilling to conduct negotiations until the hallway was cleared. More than another hour passed before their team entered the bargaining room where the PSU-AAUP team had waited patiently.
The negotiations were facilitated by Carol Mack, leader of the Administration team. We began by proposing changes to Article 34 (Librarian Development Days), Article 18 (Fixed-term and Research Faculty), Article 27 (Imposition of Progressive Sanctions), and Article 30 (Salary and Retirement). You may read these articles in full by clicking on the links here. A summary appears below. Note, the Administration asked few questions about these and shared almost no commentary about them in this session.
***Having been informed by many of our members of the notice of cessation of faculty travel awards from the Faculty Development Committee due to bargaining, the PSU-AAUP bargaining team requested an immediate restoration of those funds at current contract levels for the current academic year. While the Administration stated that awards from those funds have been abated during bargaining in the past, we have determined that in the past four contracts, that has never happened. The Administration stated their willingness to restore funds to the Faculty Development Committee so that Faculty Travel awards may occur as soon as possible.
The Administration presented their proposals to close two articles that they originally opened but decided not to bargain, Article 35 (Personnel Files), and Article 11 (Release Time). AAUP-PSU signed agreement on closing the articles and leaving them as they are in our current contract.
In the final minutes of our negotiations, the Administration proposed a package of articles (including Article 30 on salary) that did not provide counter-proposals or even consideration of any of the articles AAUP-PSU proposed in this session. The main aspects of their package are also summarized below.
NOTE: Next Bargaining Session, Tuesday, October 15, 2013, 12:30-3:00pm in Education Building Room ED414.
Here are summaries of the day’s negotiations:
Article 34 (Librarian Development Days): We continue to seek a compromise with the Administration on the question of research days for our Librarians. We had asked for 15 research days for tenured and tenure track faculty and 10 research days for the non-tenure track faculty. The Administration responded with 10 and 5. We countered with 13 and 8. Their package on Friday held to 10 and 5, and we plan to continue to bargain on this issue.
Article 18 (Non-Tenure Track Faculty and Research Faculty): As job security remains the foremost priority for the large majority of our non-tenure track and research faculty, we proposed the following (which is less than our earlier proposal but very close to the University of Oregon contract):
• Bargaining unit faculty members with the classification and rank of instructor, research assistant, research associate, assistant clinical professor, or assistant professor of practice who have appointments that are not funding contingent, shall be offered at least one-year contracts during their first four calendar years of employment in rank.
• Bargaining unit faculty members with the classification and rank of instructor, research assistant, research associate, assistant clinical professor, or assistant professor of practice who have appointments that are not funding contingent, shall be offered at least two-year rolling contracts after their first four calendar years of employment in rank.
• Bargaining unit faculty members with the classification and rank of senior instructor, senior research assistant, senior research associate, associate clinical professor, or associate professor of practice, who have appointments that are not completely dependent upon external funding shall have at least three-year rolling contracts after their first four calendar years of employment in rank.
We also proposed that faculty with seniority status (more than 4 years of continuous employment) be given notice of non-renewal no later than March 15, and those without seniority, no later than May 15.
The Administration’s package proposes eliminating multi-year contracts entirely and substituting the following notices of termination of employment:
Less than 3 years of service One full academic term
3 or more years of service Two full academic terms
Article 27 (Imposition of Progressive Sanctions):
The University proposal mainly sought to do five things: 1) remove President Wiewel from the process of initiating the sanctions more severe than a written reprimand, 2) make it easier for lower level managers to issue written reprimands; 3) take away faculty members current right to grieve written reprimands; 4) remove the language that provides for written reprimands to be removed from an employees personnel file after one year, thereby making written reprimands a permanent part of the personnel file; and 5) provide for the administration to put employees on administrative leave with pay. Here is the University proposal.
Our counter proposal included sweeping changes to the investigative process in Section 2. During the last three years, AAUP-PSU has represented dozens of employees in investigatory meetings that left long term scars- even in cases where there were no findings. We proposed sweeping changes that include: timely notification to the employee; insuring that investigations happen only when the employee is on contract; that investigations go back only so far as the law allows (we participated in an investigation this summer where a faculty member was questioned about comments made in a faculty meeting twelve years ago) and a few other procedural safeguards. We rejected the Administration proposal that written reprimands not be grievable and that they should become permanent parts of the personnel file.
AAUP-PSU has agreed to some modifications to the President’s complaint procedure that the Administration had proposed. We also proposed expanding the timelines for the Ad Hoc Peer Review process.
Article 30 (Salary and Retirement): Our proposal is a composition in parts, each with their own rationale and motivation.
Across the board increases: (None of our members should lose income due to inflation, nor should they continue to remain in the lowest rung of paid professionals when compared to similar universities)
COLA of 2.5% each of the two contract years (the expected inflation of the Portland Metro Area)
• 2% per annum increases to bring PSU faculty closer to the mean of our comparator universities
• 2% per annum increases to Academic Professionals for retention
Increase in Minimums: 3.1% increase to all minimums for all ranks of faculty and Academic Professionals (to insure that new hires enter at reasonable salaries, and that current employees not fall below those levels).
Equity Pool: (faculty retention)
• 2% of salary pooled each of the two contract years to be distributed according to an agreed-upon method to faculty who are paid at rates substantially below those in their disciplines in similar institutions.
Merit: (This is a restructuring of merit to involve reviews from Departmental P&T Committees with guidelines and procedures from Faculty Senate as well as from AAUP and the Administration).
For Tenured and Tenure Track Faculty:
• 10% of salary upon promotion in rank
• 6% of salary upon satisfactory post-tenure review, minimally every five years
For Academic Professionals and Non-Tenure Track and Research Faculty
• 1% per annum increases upon satisfactory annual review
We also proposed salary compensation for course cancellations, supplemental pay for online courses, summer employment at the historic summer session rates, and adjustments to salary should the status quo funding of PERS benefits change.
Finally, we proposed a Retirement Incentive Offer similar to the offer that the Administration made two years ago.
Administration Package Proposal Summary:
There are 35 pages in the Administration’s package proposal that consist almost entirely of their earlier proposals that significantly curtail AAUP oversight and approval for procedural changes in all of our members’ evaluations and job security. Our proposals for Parental and Catastrophic Leaves were eliminated as were our proposals for Academic Quality (such as a task force to make recommendations for evaluations of our Administrators).
Their economic proposals are as follows:
• 1% per year across the board increase in salary
• Faculty continue to pay 5% of PEBB premiums
• No increase in Faculty Development and Travel Funds
Next Bargaining Session #10, Tuesday, October 15, 2013, 12:30-3:00pm, Education Building, Room ED414.
SUPPORT AAUP BARGAINING: Please attend bargaining sessions. Stay as long as you can. Bring your colleagues, please. Your presence makes a difference.