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.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Finally, Some Movement
Hello Everyone,
I posted nothing for months, largely because there was little to report. However, in the last week, UC-AFT met twice with the University, and we are scheduled to meet again in one week.
More important, we have begun to use real numbers in negotiations, which means we're getting into the real negotiations in salary. Our emphasis in this round of contracts is adjusting the salaries of those who have a) been teaching longest in the UC system and b) who are getting the lower salaries. However, there will be range adjustments for everyone, and the base salary will increase. The merit steps will be improved, both in terms of logic and in terms of size. We don't yet know the actual percentage increase of the moves between salary lines.
Our discussions concerning workload are also proceeding, but there we have made less concrete gains. We are moving toward language that should make it easier for all lecturers to get credit for the work they actually do, and we are fighting hard to reduce the numbers of the courses taught by those lecturers in the quarter system.
The UC-AFT bargaining team is scheduling meetings on all the campuses. At these meetings, one of the team members will be present to answer questions about bargaining. We know it is summer time, but when you get the announcement of a meeting, please make an effort to attend. You can always feel free to contact me as well.
Ben Harder
I posted nothing for months, largely because there was little to report. However, in the last week, UC-AFT met twice with the University, and we are scheduled to meet again in one week.
More important, we have begun to use real numbers in negotiations, which means we're getting into the real negotiations in salary. Our emphasis in this round of contracts is adjusting the salaries of those who have a) been teaching longest in the UC system and b) who are getting the lower salaries. However, there will be range adjustments for everyone, and the base salary will increase. The merit steps will be improved, both in terms of logic and in terms of size. We don't yet know the actual percentage increase of the moves between salary lines.
Our discussions concerning workload are also proceeding, but there we have made less concrete gains. We are moving toward language that should make it easier for all lecturers to get credit for the work they actually do, and we are fighting hard to reduce the numbers of the courses taught by those lecturers in the quarter system.
The UC-AFT bargaining team is scheduling meetings on all the campuses. At these meetings, one of the team members will be present to answer questions about bargaining. We know it is summer time, but when you get the announcement of a meeting, please make an effort to attend. You can always feel free to contact me as well.
Ben Harder
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Report on Monday's Bargaining Session
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Campus Meetings
It seems that the year is already winding down, and the bargaining team members want to hold meetings on every campus, so we had better start. Look for local postings about dates and times. These meetings about contract negotiations are only open to those who are members of the union, not people paying "fair share" fees. If you are not sure whether you are a union member, contact your local campus representative. If you would like to join, you can download print, fill out, and mail this form:
http://www.cft.org/councils/uc/pdfs/memberform.pdf
Return the form to: Treasurer, UC-AFT, 11728 Wilshire Blvd, #B1007, Los Angeles, CA 90025.
We look forward to meeting with you to discuss the contract.
Ben
http://www.cft.org/councils/uc/pdfs/memberform.pdf
Return the form to: Treasurer, UC-AFT, 11728 Wilshire Blvd, #B1007, Los Angeles, CA 90025.
We look forward to meeting with you to discuss the contract.
Ben
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Update 15 April
There was a charged negotiating session on Friday, 13 April. As you remember, four articles from our MOU (memorandum of understanding, IE contract) are open for renegotiation. These are Article 21-Salary, Article 24-Instructional Workload, Article 26-Release Time for UC-AFT Business, and Article 40-Duration. In short, these articles speak to what we are paid, how much work we do, what support the UC owes the Union, and how long the current contract will last.
The UC gave proposals on Articles 21 and 40. It still proposes that our contract be extended one more year (to 2011) with no opportunity to re-examine problem articles. In light of proposed changes to benefits and our total compensation, the Union finds that such a change would not be in our interest.
In terms of salary, the UC managed to convey the unfortunate attitude that we lecturers should be grateful to take salary increases called for by the compact (along the lines of two to four percent, depending on how much the legislature gives and how much the UC redirects to merit pools or other items). Through frank discussion, our bargaining team conveyed our dissatisfaction with such a proposal.
From this point, the bargaining session focused on discussion of salary and workload. The Union President, Bob Samuels, gave a presentation on workload problems and methods employed on several campuses to address these problems. By the end of these discussions, the UC indicated better understanding of our concerns.
The final topic of negotiations was the ground rules for negotiations. The UC had proposed language that might limit whom the Union could bring to the table and curtail our communication with our members and broader constituents. Our counter proposal was not received well because we cut some provisions the UC considers key. We will attempt to craft ground rules that address the UC's concerns without censoring ourselves.
The most positive news is that any scheduled COLA increases in October will apply to Lecturers as well as to Senate faculty. However, the two teams agreed to delay our next meeting until mid May in order to give both sides more time to craft counter proposals. Both sides hope to finish negotiations in the first part of summer, but we are still clearly in the opening stages.
The UC gave proposals on Articles 21 and 40. It still proposes that our contract be extended one more year (to 2011) with no opportunity to re-examine problem articles. In light of proposed changes to benefits and our total compensation, the Union finds that such a change would not be in our interest.
In terms of salary, the UC managed to convey the unfortunate attitude that we lecturers should be grateful to take salary increases called for by the compact (along the lines of two to four percent, depending on how much the legislature gives and how much the UC redirects to merit pools or other items). Through frank discussion, our bargaining team conveyed our dissatisfaction with such a proposal.
From this point, the bargaining session focused on discussion of salary and workload. The Union President, Bob Samuels, gave a presentation on workload problems and methods employed on several campuses to address these problems. By the end of these discussions, the UC indicated better understanding of our concerns.
The final topic of negotiations was the ground rules for negotiations. The UC had proposed language that might limit whom the Union could bring to the table and curtail our communication with our members and broader constituents. Our counter proposal was not received well because we cut some provisions the UC considers key. We will attempt to craft ground rules that address the UC's concerns without censoring ourselves.
The most positive news is that any scheduled COLA increases in October will apply to Lecturers as well as to Senate faculty. However, the two teams agreed to delay our next meeting until mid May in order to give both sides more time to craft counter proposals. Both sides hope to finish negotiations in the first part of summer, but we are still clearly in the opening stages.
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