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Dear colleagues,
The collective bargaining session on Wednesday, September 16 between your UFF faculty bargaining team and the Board of Trustees’ team was productive, but relatively brief and limited in scope. (Perhaps only in collective bargaining would we describe a 2+ hour meeting as “brief!”) Both teams went back and forth on Article 3 (UFF Rights), which has become something of a lynchpin toward achieving final settlement.
In short, our lawyers and the BOT’s lawyers have very different readings on the new law (SB 1296) that went into effect in July and we are trying to come to a reasonable compromise. The central issue is that bargaining takes a great deal of time, which the administrators are compensated for, but not the faculty. Faculty, to be clear, are not looking for compensation for bargaining and administering the contract, but we do need to have our work reflected on our assignments of responsibility. It is an honor to bargain on behalf of the faculty, but it is not my hobby (if only I had time for a hobby!). We are faculty first and it is important that bargaining and other union work not become a drain on our ability to teach and do research.
The UFF team began the session by proposing this language, the BOT countered with this language, and we concluded the day by responding with this language.
It is frustrating to all of us that we have not yet reached agreement, that we did not talk about salaries today, and that the BOT has not yet signed the Memorandum of Agreement we proffered (more than a month ago), which would allow PTR and SPI raises to go into effect.
We will meet again for a four-hour session on Wednesday, September 23 from 1:30–5:30 (location TBA) in hopes of coming to final agreement. As always, we invite you to join us in person or (technology willing) via Zoom. Alas, technology was not willing today. Apologies to any of you who tried to stream the session. Attending in person is the surest way to frustrate those knavish gods of technology! And the surest way to strengthen our position at the bargaining table is to join the majority of your colleagues, as members of UFF-FSU.
In solidarity,
Michael Buchler, on behalf of your UFF-FSU collective bargaining team
Professor of Music Theory
Florida State University College of Music
Chief Negotiator, United Faculty of Florida–FSU Chapter