On Monday, the 14th of May, UC-AFT met with the University. The session produced no formal proposals, but at least the two sides agreed to ground rules for negotiations, after three months of meetings.
The majority of meeting time was used to discuss changes to the Workload article. The University is beginning to recognize the disparity of workloads across the system following Bob Samuels' presentation during the April session. Much of the discussion on Monday treated contract enforcement. UC-AFT is determined to get arbitration for the Workload provisions so that when our members have a problem with workload there is a mechanism to ensure the University is not stealing our labor. The University seems to understand the importance of applying arbitration to this part of our contract.
Nothing happened with the Salary discussions. The University is still studying its budgetary situation for the upcoming fiscal year. The UC-AFT has filed an information request about the mechanisms for funding COLA adjustments. As you probably know, the California budget allocated a 4% increase in academic salaries last fiscal year, and we received a 2% COLA adjustment. The Union is trying to find out what happened to the other 2%. The University claims that the missing money went towards merit pay increases, but the accounting is unclear to us. We anticipate further discussion on this matter.
To sum up, nothing concrete has happened yet. The University might be willing to give us appropriate salary increases and to ensure we have reasonable workload expectations. Or, the University might become intransigent.
Our members need to prepare for increased activity during the summer break and the fall term. Please contact your local campus leadership.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Meeting on Monday, 14 May
Tomorrow our team is meeting with the University again. Their team will present new counter proposals on Salary and Workload. So far, as you know, there has been good discussion, but not much movement. We hope that upcoming meetings will generate light and heat.
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