Contract negotiations begin for AAUP Unit 2

Contract negotiations for AAUP Unit 2 began with a one-hour session on Thursday, Dec. 11. Another bargaining session is scheduled for Friday, starting at 10 a.m.

Members of the Faculty Bargaining Team said the first session was cordial and both sides share the goal of completing negotiations efficiently. The contract for this bargaining unit expires on Dec. 23.

The Faculty Bargaining Team is Geoff Woolf (chief spokesperson), Darlene Gray, and Pam Ecker.

Executive Vice President Carla Chance is chief spokesperson for the Administration Bargaining Team. Other team members are Soni Hill, Interim Vice President of Enrollment and Student Development; Temesha Corbin, Director of the Advising Center; Betty Young, Director of Human Resources; and Steve Brooks, Manager of Labor Relations.

Mediator John Gray, from the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service, also attended the session.

Geoff said the teams discussed areas of the contract where changes may be proposed.

“The Unit 2 contract contains many articles that are the same as the Unit 1 contract,” Geoff said. “We agreed that many of the changes made in Unit 1 negotiations will be applied to the comparable articles in the Unit 2 contract.”

Geoff said the Faculty Team will be proposing changes related to some aspects of the Workload and Benefits articles, as well as proposals for compensation of unit members.

“A big difference between Units 1 and 2 relates to the configuration of workdays,” Geoff said.

“Unit 2 faculty members work 220 days annually, and have the ability to take vacation days,” Geoff continued. “However, sometimes it’s difficult for members of the unit to use their vacation days because of the way their work is scheduled.”

“Also, members of Unit 2 sometimes have responsibilities that must be completed in the evening or on weekends, such as College Fast Track enrollment sessions,” Geoff said.

“We discussed some of these workload problems three years ago when we negotiated the Unit 2 contract, but additional effort is needed to resolve the problems,” Geoff added.

Faculty Team members said the Administration Team indicated they will bring a proposal related to the Tenure article of the Unit 2 contract.

Geoff explained, “In the Unit 1 contract, it states that a faculty member ‘must’ apply for tenure at the end of their five-year probationary period. In the Unit 2 contract, it says that the faculty member ‘may’ apply for tenure.”

“We know that some administrators believe that tenure should not be granted to faculty members whose positions are funded by grants, and we’ll certainly listen and try to understand their concerns,” Geoff said. “However, the tenure article has been part of the Unit 2 contract for a long time, and the ability to apply for the awarding of tenure is an important principle for AAUP.”

Additional information about Unit 2 negotiations is in the Dec. 11 issue of AAUP News.