Bargaining Update: May 3, 2023 (Part 2)

Dear FSU Colleagues,

The bargaining teams met Wednesday to discuss Article 23-Salaries (and we also agreed to ground rules for our bargaining sessions). The UFF team sent our first proposal on May 1. That proposal and the BOT’s first counteroffer included the following:

Both teams agree on the continuation of Promotion Increases of 12% for the second rank and 15% for the top rank.

We would like to acknowledge that the BOT’s first counteroffer was the highest we have seen in some time (as a reminder, last year the first offer the BOT made was 1% Performance, 0.25% for Departmental Merit, 1.50% Deans’ Merit, no Market Equity, and 1.25% Administrative Discretionary Increases, or ADI), which is certainly appreciated. However, as shown above, each team’s priorities remain quite different.

As we noted during the bargaining session, the UFF offer takes into consideration the need to retain faculty; as we are hearing and seeing, faculty members are leaving or planning to leave Florida for several reasons, including pay and attacks on higher education and DEI.

We explained that faculty have been losing ground in real dollars due to inflation, which amounts to a pay cut. We are asking for the cost of inflation from March 2022-March 2023, which is 4.98%. In our annual poll, more than half of the faculty who responded stated that they would not ratify if the offer didn’t at least offset the cost of inflation. We hear you, and we will try our best to advocate for your priorities.

We also explained once again that faculty tell us that when it comes to merit: Departmental Merit is essential because it is based on criteria agreed upon by the faculty as well as the Deans and Provost, while Deans’ Merit is completely discretionary without any stated criteria. That is, faculty never know what they need to do to receive Deans’ Merit because the process is not transparent. We also pointed out that Deans and the Provost approve Departmental Merit plans, so they do in fact have a say in Departmental Merit decisions, precluding any need for Deans’ Merit. Furthermore, Deans have Administrative Discretionary Increases available to them to reward especially productive faculty and/or those who have offers from other schools, as outlined in Article 23.

We also reminded the BOT team that Market Equity is critical for faculty retention. University data show that Market Equity is an $18 million problem. So that we don’t keep falling behind, Performance and Market Equity adjustments are necessary.

After both sides made two counteroffers, we ended the session with:

We look forward to receiving the BOT’s next counter when we bargain again on Monday, May 8, from 2-5pm.

Our union’s efforts at the bargaining table are most effective when faculty attendance is high: if you care about Salaries, please come! Bargaining sessions are open to faculty, and we appreciate having you! Meetings are face-to-face at the FSU Training Center (493 Stadium Drive). If you would like to attend remotely, please contact Brian Arsenault <mailto:arsenault.brian.a@gmail.com> for the Zoom link. (Alternatively, if you retained the previous bargaining Zoom link, it will still work.) 

Regular bargaining updates can be found at our webpage: https://uff-fsu.org/ 

The key to a strong Collective Bargaining Agreement is a strong membership base, so if you are not a member, please join! It is more important than ever for us to stand together. https://uff-fsu.org/wp/join/ 

All the best,

Scott Hannahs, Specialized Faculty, Magnet Lab, and Jennifer Proffitt, Professor, Communication

Co-Chief Negotiators, UFF-FSU