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Dear Colleagues,
During our last bargaining session on July 29th, the UFF-FSU team presented a new salary proposal that includes an ‘Administrative Parity’ clause (see below). The BOT Bargaining Team ended the bargaining session somewhat abruptly after we submitted this proposal and they did not accept our request to meet on August 5. However, the BOT team has now proposed a bargaining session at 1:30 pm on August 12 and we look forward to a productive dialog.
Our Salary Proposals
As is the nature of negotiations, UFF has sought accord by steadily moving toward a financial compromise with Board, reducing the total cost of our economic package by millions of dollars. Two weeks ago, we made a massive structural concession: we not only dropped our proposal for performance increases from 4.2% to 2%, but we zeroed out our Market Equity proposal as well as our Departmental Merit proposal.
We made these concessions because the Board continually claimed there was no money for recurring base-salary increases. To bridge that gap, we proposed a one-time, non-recurring $5,000 bonus. Restructuring the proposal to save the university millions was a major concession in the hopes of reaching an agreement.
Clause 23.5(e): Administrative Parity
In response to our significant concessions, the Board has held absolutely firm at 0% for Performance Increases, 0% for Departmental Merit, and $0 for Market Equity. After agreeing to substantially cut our salary offer, we introduced a new clause to create a mechanism for basic parity with our colleagues in administration. It simply states that if the Board provides continuing base-salary increases to upper administrators, the faculty should receive an equivalent percentage. The Board labeled the proposal containing our new Administration-Commensurate Compensation clause as “retrenchment.” We do not understand this, but look forward to sorting it out at the bargaining table next week.
Let us be entirely clear about why this clause is on the table. If the representatives of FSU’s Board of Trustees are right that there is simply no recurring money for raises, then this clause costs the university absolutely nothing, because the administration will also be receiving zero raises to their base salaries. In fighting this clause, they appear to be signaling that the BOT intends to give raises to our upper administrators, while enforcing a freeze on raises for the vast majority of faculty. The BOT team continues to reassure us that faculty are a top priority.
The $17.4 Million and Institutional Priorities
This brings us to the university’s true financial standing.
On June 30th, this administration broadcast a press release to the entire state celebrating that FSU secured over $180 million in the state budget. We applaud this victory. But faculty also read the fine print: that budget includes $17.4 million in new, recurring operational funding.
In that press release, President McCullough stated that this budget will “strengthen our ability to attract and support exceptional faculty and staff.”
When we raised this, the Board’s response was that this $17.4 million in recurring funding is “already spoken for.”
If those funds are truly spoken for, it means the administration made a conscious, deliberate choice to allocate $17.4 million to other areas before securing a contract with its faculty. They did not lack the funds; they simply chose to prioritize other expenditures over the “exceptional faculty” President McCullough publicly praised.
Conclusion
We know you are watching these negotiations and are asking how a 0% base-salary raise for most faculty attracts or supports faculty. How can the university tout a historic legislative victory in the press while claiming poverty at the bargaining table?
All the contract proposals are currently in their court, including the new chair review and family leave policies. The BOT team also has not yet agreed to our MOA proposal that would provide promotion, SPI, and PTR raises on schedule, while we continue to iron out the rest of our salary package. We look forward to the session on August 12 and hope that the Board will present an economic counterproposal that either accepts our structural concessions and parity clause or that finally utilizes the university’s new recurring funds to offer the base salary increases the faculty deserve.
We return to the bargaining table at a slightly different time this Wednesday: 1:30–3:30 in the Training Center across from the Stadium. Please join us in person if you are able to do so. We hope that seeing more faculty will the send the BOT’s team a message that supporting faculty should be more than just a talking point.
In solidarity,
Michael Buchler, on behalf of your entire UFF Collective Bargaining Team
Michael Buchler
Professor of Music Theory
Florida State University College of Music
Chief Negotiator, United Faculty of Florida–FSU Chapter