Bargaining Update from May 27, 2026

Dear colleagues,

Last week’s bargaining session was held on Wednesday, May 27 and it was a doozy. This update would be overly long if I recounted all the drama, but I’ll offer a synopsis along with links to all the proposed contract language:

• Three weeks into bargaining and we have not yet seen a response to Article 23 (Salaries). The Administration (BOT) team signaled that we might receive their opening offer next week.
• The BOT team opened Article 10 (Evaluations) for the sake of negotiating an equivalent of Post-Tenure Review (PTR) for people serving as in-unit administrators (e.g., department chairs), who are currently excluded from both the review and its associated raises. We had tried to include in-unit administrators when we first negotiated PTR two years ago and are very glad that the BOT now seems to agree with us. However, the BOT’s initial attempt at writing language for in-unit administrators wasn’t commensurate with PTR: it only assessed their administrative work and not the totality of work represented on their AORs (we argued that chairs who do research or teaching should receive credit for that work in their evaluations), didn’t allow faculty a voice in evaluating their chairs, and included no deadline for review decisions to be reached. We addressed all these issues in the proposal we passed across the table at the beginning of the session. Unexpectedly, the BOT team quickly revoked their request for in-unit administrator review in the contract and offered us a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that would create a one-year trial run: nothing permanent, no promise that people who are evaluated and get raises next year will have another chance in the future, no promise that people who don’t get evaluated next year will have a chance the following year. We don’t know why the BOT team changed their minds about administrator review, but if you are a chair and want this review (and the raises that come with it), please let us know and, more importantly, let your dean know!
• We passed across the table our first draft of a new Article 32 (Artificial Intelligence Use). You can have a look at the article yourself and see what we’re after. Rest assured that we aim to protect faculty rights to use AI in their work and also faculty rights not to do so. We are hoping to enact common-sense safeguards for our intellectual property, data, privacy, and for our jobs! We would appreciate any input from faculty (especially members!) who can review our first proposal.
• Finally, the BOT team tendered a version of Article 3 (UFF Rights) that not only revokes any ability for UFF activists who engage in bargaining and contract enforcement (including representation of faculty members in grievances) to have that service counted on our Assignments of Responsibility, but they took the first steps towards entirely discounting this kind of work as University Service (in Articles 3 and 10). They claim that they are doing it because of newly passed SB 1296 (which goes into effect on July 1), but by any standard they are going well beyond the legislators’ union-busting bill and appear to have taken on union busting as their own mission.

Why does Article 3 matter? UFF activity is needed to defend the rights of ALL in-unit faculty. Both bargaining and helping our members maintain the rights that we have negotiated in our CBA through the grievance procedure (Article 20), takes a tremendous amount of time—as much as teaching a course, as much as writing an article. Working to secure our rights and to advocate for better contract provisions has long been acknowledged with a heavy service load on the AORs of people who carry the most weight for our union. If that practice stops, we will need MANY more UFF members to step up and play a role in the union, especially in the area of contract enforcement. We will no longer be able to defend your rights with our current faculty volunteers if they also have extra course assignments or greater research expectations. Your willingness to volunteer will be key to our union’s survival. If you value what we do, please write to your dean, to the Provost, to the Vice President for Faculty Development and Advancement, to the President,… to anyone in power and ask them to work with UFF to continue recognizing our service on our AORs. Your colleagues spend thousands of hours per year bargaining for and enforcing your contract rights. There just are not enough hours in the day to do this important union work while maintaining a full load of teaching, research, and other service. 

This is a clear attempt to break our union and we need not only your membership, but your help. We will need many more hands to make our work lighter in the face of these unimaginable cuts. With your membership and your time (even just a few hours a semester!), our union will not only survive, but thrive.

Our next bargaining session will be on Wednesday, June 3 from 2:00–5:00 in Westcott 201 (note the different location). We will stream the session, but if you can come out and join us, please do! You can really help us make a difference.

In solidarity and on behalf of your UFF-FSU Collective Bargaining Team,

Michael Buchler

Professor of Music Theory

Florida State University College of Music

Co-Chief Negotiator, United Faculty of Florida–FSU Chapter