The bargaining team for Unit 18 is pleased to announce that UC-AFT has come to a tentative agreement with the University in this round of re-opener bargaining. The bargaining team unanimously endorses this tentative agreement. The key elements are the following:
Major Gains
Salary
Guaranteed 3% salary increase for each of the next three years, which is more than Senate faculty are guaranteed.
Substantial salary increases for long-term lecturers, those with more than ten years of UC service. Some will be getting over 25% to resolve salary compression. This is in addition to any merit increases that will be awarded during the period.
Average total salary increase over the next three years for continuing appointments will be just over 15%. Any merits received will increase this amount by at least 5%.
A new minimum for all lecturers, effective in October 2007, of over 42,000.
Increase of minimum merits to 5%, from 3.8%.
Commitment to address the social security problem for lecturers with less than 50% appointments.
Substantial salary increases for UCLA SEEDS teachers.
Workload
A new course load maximum of 8 courses for lecturers who teach writing and foreign languages on the quarter campuses.
Elimination of “second section discounts”
New processes for reducing workload and giving credit for the work lecturers do outside of the classroom.
A new system-wide grievance process for workload disputes.
What We Didn’t Get
Salary
12-year and 19-year minimum salaries
Parity with Senate Faculty on special salary increases
Workload
Automatic Sabbatical leaves
Universal course load reduction.
Neutral third-party arbitration on all workload disputes
Paid release time for Union Stewards
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Unit 18 Contract Negotiations Near Conclusion
After a marathon session on Friday, 17th August, the UC-AFT and the University have a tentative agreement on most of the contract re-openers. The one remaining issue concerns the teachers in UCLA’s SEEDS school, a demonstration school for children on the Westwood Campus.
Because the negotiations are not officially completed, I cannot provide details about the settlement at this time. However, I can say that we have notable achievements in salary and workload. First, we are guaranteed general salary range adjustments that equal or exceed those of Senate Faculty over the next three years. The minimum salary for lecturers will exceed $40,000, and all those who have taught seven years or more will see one-time adjustments to their salaries, based on length of service and salary level. Finally, the steps on are salary scale will be evened out and regularized, so that we will get 5% for single two-step merit increases.
In workload, we have helped the worst off in the system directly by reducing the number of writing or language courses that lecturers on the quarter system teach, lowering the number to eight. We have also eliminated the “second section discount” on courses when one lecturer teaches two sections of the same course. While this will not directly help all lecturers, we also have established processes to adjust the credit given to courses that are more labor-intensive and to give credit to NSF for work that they do that is currently unrecognized. These processes are designed to happen quickly, so this academic year we should see policy changes that ease our workload burdens.
We anticipate the bargaining coming to a full conclusion by the 29th of August, and we will make a formal announcement about the tentative agreement at that time. The bargaining team members are planning to visit each campus in early to late September to meet the membership in preparation for contract ratification before October 4th.
Because the negotiations are not officially completed, I cannot provide details about the settlement at this time. However, I can say that we have notable achievements in salary and workload. First, we are guaranteed general salary range adjustments that equal or exceed those of Senate Faculty over the next three years. The minimum salary for lecturers will exceed $40,000, and all those who have taught seven years or more will see one-time adjustments to their salaries, based on length of service and salary level. Finally, the steps on are salary scale will be evened out and regularized, so that we will get 5% for single two-step merit increases.
In workload, we have helped the worst off in the system directly by reducing the number of writing or language courses that lecturers on the quarter system teach, lowering the number to eight. We have also eliminated the “second section discount” on courses when one lecturer teaches two sections of the same course. While this will not directly help all lecturers, we also have established processes to adjust the credit given to courses that are more labor-intensive and to give credit to NSF for work that they do that is currently unrecognized. These processes are designed to happen quickly, so this academic year we should see policy changes that ease our workload burdens.
We anticipate the bargaining coming to a full conclusion by the 29th of August, and we will make a formal announcement about the tentative agreement at that time. The bargaining team members are planning to visit each campus in early to late September to meet the membership in preparation for contract ratification before October 4th.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)