In This issue

IMPORTANT DATES

A Note from the chapter President on the 2% compensation Issue

More on the 2% Compensation Issue

HEALTH CARE NEGOTIATIONS

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AAUP Links

Akron-AAUP Monthly Newsletter: december, 2009

A Special communication to the bargaining unit

Important Dates:

The contract has expired. Negotiations have ended. Mediation has ended. We begin the process of fact-finding December 21, 2009.

All terms and conditions of employment continue in effect by operation of law until the fact-finding process is concluded.

The following dates are subject to change. We will notify the membership promptly of any changes to this schedule:

Monday, Dec 21: We will present our briefs on outstanding issues to the fact-finder.

Tuesday, Dec 22: Both sides have been called to a meeting with the fact-finder to clarify their final positions on unresolved issues.

Thursday, Dec 24: we have the right to submit reply briefs on health care only

Friday Jan. 8th (on or about): We anticipate receiving the fact-finding report.

After Jan. 8th: Immediately upon receipt of the fact-finder's report we will distribute it to the dues-paying members of the chapter for their review and consideration.

Wednesday, Jan 13 and Thursday, Jan 14: Akron-AAUP will hold information sessions for all dues-paying chapter members. We will have a recommendation for the membership at that time on the vote to accept or reject the fact-finder's report.

January 15: A vote of the Akron-AAUP membership on 2 items: 1) To accept or reject the fact-finder's report, and 2) to authorize a strike.

Note: The strike authorization vote may be phrased to allow either of the following: 1) to authorize a strike action immediately, with the legally required 10-days notice to the university, or 2) to authorize the executive committee to call a strike at a later date if deemed necessary, again with 10 days notice to the university.

From the Chapter President regarding the 2% One Time Compensation offer:

Colleagues, I have received emails from a couple of faculty members who were concerned that the Negotiating Team was turning down the UA administration's offer of a 2% one-time payment for the current year. It is important to understand that this one-time payment could be made only in the context of agreement to the overall labor contract. Not only was the offer not to base pay but it also came with strings attached including asking us to accept with it the UA administration's health care proposal. We have not lost the 2%. We anticipate it or something better will be part of the fact-finders report, the report on which the chapter members will vote to ratify or not.

We at Akron-AAUP have been negotiating in good faith and the UA administration, we feel, has not. Their first negotiating "offer" on compensation was the PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT of the 2 percent one-time payment to all UA employees. The administration attempted to force our hand in the negotiations and take advantage of the fact that some salary-starved faculty members might wish, understandably, to take anything they might get.

Please be assured we are doing our best to get as good a deal as we can. The negotiating process now goes on to fact-finding. Our experienced negotiators, our excellent labor attorney, and health care consultants are working hard, some of them virtually around the clock, to prepare our case for the fact-finder. We will deliver as good an agreement as we can given the economic climate and the difficult negotiating partner we confront.

In the meantime, keep in mind that without Akron-AAUP you would likely be facing:

·Furloughs (since withdrawn)
·a retrenchment policy that would allow the UA administration to dispense with people regardless of tenure (since withdrawn)
·loss of academic freedom (since withdrawn)
·a post-tenure review policy in which you could be singled out for review and disciplined at the whim of a chair and a dean (since modified, and hopefully to be rejected by the fact-finder, and if not by him, then by us).

These are difficult and complex negotiations but we're entering the home stretch and making every effort to get the best contract we can for the UA faculty.
- Walter L. Hixson, Akron-AAUP Chapter President

The Compensation Offer

Further Clarification of the Negotiating Team's Reasoning on the Compensation Offer: Faculty no doubt read the University President’s message about the Board of Trustees awarding staff and faculty a 2% one-time payment (NOT to base pay). Here is the rest of the story. That email announcement went to the campus community without any prior notice to Akron-AAUP. Thus, by issuing the proposal in public the University administration committed two, apparently intentional, errors. Though we were still in negotiations that day, trying to mediate agreements, the University's public pronouncement preempted those efforts. It was presented to us, in effect, as a fait accompli. Second, by posting bargaining proposals in public as they did, the University administration arguably committed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP). Ironically, they previously complained about the Akron-AAUP posting bargaining updates on the public portion of our web site, so we moved those updates to a password protected site that ONLY bargaining unit faculty could access. Understand that we did NOT reject simply a one time payment. We rejected an unacceptable package of administration proposals, of which the 2% was only one part.

The Akron-AAUP made counterproposals on compensation in an attempt to address some of the ongoing problems in faculty salary competitiveness. We offered compromises as well, to try to get a deal. The University would have none of it, continuing to claim poverty while simultaneously spending money on all of the administration’s priorities (more new construction, switching out the football coaching staff, high-powered and expensive executive search firms, hundreds of thousands of dollars for design firms). With more new construction planned and announced (even on the day of the message announcing the 2%), the University administration seems intent on continuing to spend tremendous sums of money on anything but its faculty and staff. This will not change…unless we hold them to account for their actions.

Where Health Care Negotiations Stand:

Accompanying the 2% payment announcement was another frustrating turn of events. In mid-December the University negotiating team approached our NT with a “concept” for a new way of doing health care. This was not a proposal, they assured us, but was simply a concept…for kicking around, as it were. One week later, on the last day of mediated negotiations, they not only announced the 2% one time payment via press release and e-mail, but also reversed, without discussion or negotiation, their position on their health care “concept," declaring it to be their final proposal.

What can we say about this? First, it is even more disingenuous than the 2% "proposal". Second, we believe it to be an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP), since they did not present their proposal to us in a timely and detailed manner. Third, the UA team did not negotiate this, denying us our right to negotiate the terms and conditions of our employment.

We had given them our healthcare proposal, which we had prepared with the assistance of the Segal Company, a top benefits and HR consulting firm. We had researched and presented carefully crafted proposals both to address legitimate University concerns and to preserve good coverage for faculty and their families. In our view, ours was a state of the art proposal to improve health care coverage in an economically responsible fashion. The Administration simply was not interested. We are continuing to push for a health care plan that addresses both the concerns of our University and of each of our members.

Compensation, health care, post-tenure review, and other issues have moved to the fact-finding stage of negotiations. The fact-finder, Rob Stein, has the job of writing a report based on the last best offers from both sides on the outstanding issues. He will take our briefs and any other information he needs into consideration when writing his report of findings. That report will become the tentative agreement unless rejected by either the chapter membership or the Board of Trustees.

Keep in mind that while it may be a challenge for you all to keep track of this negotiating process, you should know Akron-AAUP is holding firm to its commitment to secure a fair and equitable contract. If you have questions, please ask them. We answer every inquiry. Our union is only as strong as its membership is well-informed. You have a talented and tireless Negotiating Team who has represented your interests throughout this process and continues to do so through the holiday season.

Back to you after the Holidays with an update.
Akron-AAUP
Communications Committee