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Dear FSU Colleagues,
Our latest bargaining session was held on Wednesday, August 6. Your UFF-FSU faculty team and the Board of Trustees’ team discussed salaries (Article 23), leaves (Article 17), and inventions and works (Article 18).
The good news is that the BOT team agreed to sign the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that we proposed weeks ago. The MOA will allow newly promoted faculty to receive their promotion raises on time. We are glad that the BOT team agreed with us that promotion raises are critically important for the faculty members who worked so hard to earn them.
The BOT team presented their latest proposal for Article 18, Inventions and Works. The sticking point still remains how to define “scope of employment.” The BOT team argued that faculty members are employees 100% of the time—nights, weekends, summers, breaks—whether 9-, 10-, or 12-month faculty, and thus, the university should be able to claim rights to any invention a faculty member thinks about or creates as part of their appointment or their research expertise, whether or not FSU resources were used in its creation. We have insisted many times that this argument is unreasonable, yet the BOT team acted surprised that we do not agree with their interpretation of “scope of employment.” Our position is that faculty cannot be treated like indentured servants to the university.
For Article 23, Salaries, the BOT’s latest proposal went up by 0.10%. The BOT team argued that they are getting close to their limit, so, in order to move closer to an agreement, we countered by zeroing out priorities for both sides—Deans’ Merit, a priority of the BOT, and Market Equity, a priority of UFF-FSU. However, we are holding steady on performance raises, which are unquestionably the top priority of faculty in the UFF-FSU faculty poll every single year, and departmental merit, which is based on faculty approved criteria.
| BOT offer August 6 | UFF offer August 6 | |
| Promotions | 12% / 15% | 12% / 15% |
| Sustained Performance Increase (SPI) for top ranked specialized faculty every 5 years | 3% | 3% |
| Post-Tenure Review: Professors | 3% Meets / 5% Exceeds | 3% Meets / 5% Exceeds |
| Post-Tenure Review: Associate Professors | $4,000 Bonus Meets / $6,000 Bonus Exceeds | $4,000 Bonus Meets / $6,000 Bonus Exceeds |
| Performance | 1.35% (up from 1.25%) | 2.75% or $2,750 whichever is greater |
| Department Merit | 0.25% (same as last proposal) | 1.0% (down from 1.5%) |
| Deans’ Merit | 0.10% | 0.00% (down from 0.05%) |
| Market Equity (to adjust for compression and inversion) | $0 (same as last proposal) | $0 (down from $1,000,000) |
| Administrative Discretionary Raise | 0.80% (same as last proposal) | 0.30% (same as last proposal) |
We also presented our counter on Article 17, Leaves. We think that the BOT’s proposal that faculty members could take a parental leave for ten weeks, with two years in between, is a loss to faculty who currently have the right to a six-month parental leave once in their career at FSU. Our latest proposal is that faculty members would be able to take two parental leaves, or one parental leave and one family leave to take care of a sick relative, for sixteen weeks each. We also proposed that non-instructional faculty could break up the leave and take parts of it at different times of the year, with their supervisor’s approval. We look forward to the BOT’s response.
If you are concerned about the BOT’s proposals regarding salaries, inventions and works, or leaves, please feel free to contact your favorite (and/or most appropriate) administrator with your thoughts. We do what we can at the bargaining table, but the administration needs to know that faculty are concerned.
Bargaining will continue Monday, August 11, from 2:00-5:00pm at the FSU Training Center, just across Stadium Drive from the University Center (or join us on Zoom). Please plan to join us as that is another important way to let the administration know you are watching.
And if you haven’t joined UFF-FSU already, please do not wait; join today and protect our right to collectively bargain and enforce contracts that protect faculty rights.
In solidarity and on behalf of the UFF-FSU bargaining team,
Jennifer Proffitt
UFF-FSU Co-Chief Negotiator and Professor of Communication