BARGAINING UPDATES

Session 13: September 7, 2021
The UArts Administration continues to stall at the bargaining table through inaction. They have not submitted any new proposals since early summer, nor have they responded to eight proposals we have passed across the table to them. Prior to the 9/7 session we had sent UArts Admin a list of outstanding items needing their response, at their lawyer’s request. Instead of following through, however, they merely requested an updated list of items.
Here is a summary of the verbal responses we have received to some of our proposals:
Successor Language - Our proposal would allow our faculty union to remain in place if UArts merges or is absorbed by another university. The UArts Administration has indicated that they don’t want 'limitations' on future transactions. We are hopeful we can come to a resolution on this and retain the full protection of our union.
COVID Memorandum of Understanding - This is a way for us to come to an agreement on COVID-19 safety protocols before the rest of our contract negotiations are complete. UArts Admin have promised they will have a response at our next bargaining session, and have indicated that they are working on a way to get free COVID-19 testing on campus for part-time faculty.
Shared Governance - The UArts Administration’s verbal response to our Shared Governance proposal was to suggest removing almost everything other than a Labor Management Committee, which we find unsatisfactory. We do feel this conversation was productive, and have agreed to make changes to our proposal that might address some of their concerns. We have yet to receive a response in writing.

Session 12: August 10, 2021
Our Bargaining Team continued to hold the line on our Shared Governance proposal. Two Bargaining Team members spoke passionately about their frustrations serving on Faculty Council while trying to make real changes on behalf of Faculty and Students at UArts, and why Shared Governance matters:
“How can we embody Shared Governance principles when there is no practice that can meaningfully or respectfully exercise them? … At this point I only care about Shared Governance in practice. I’m asking that the administration endorse and embrace the Shared Governance practices outlined in our proposal.” - Kevin Mercer, Associate Professor, School of Design
“This administration treats the current structure of Shared Governance with total disregard. The solution to unilateral actions by this administration was the formation of our Faculty Union… the structure of Shared Governance, which allows for Faculty voices in how our University is run, must be improved.” - John Woodin, Adjunct Professor, School of Art
We also pressed UArts Administration on their desire to shift our Retrenchment proposal to a “Reduction in Force” policy - which would make it more difficult to recall furloughed faculty following institutional financial challenges. More updates on this to come.
We’re happy to report that some progress has been made on Academic Freedom and Job Postings, although four of our Proposals have still received NO response at all.

Session 11: July 30, 2021
The UArts Administration AGAIN kept the Bargaining Team and faculty members waiting without a prior heads-up, this time for 45 minutes, a significant amount of our scheduled time. “Disrespectful” doesn’t begin to address this behavior.
Vice President for Academic Affairs  Carol Graney was in attendance when the Open Bargaining session finally began. Faculty in attendance had the opportunity to ask her to elaborate on a number of issues surrounding recent changes to the Faculty Handbook as well as COVID precautions for the fall.
Graney confirmed that students, faculty, and staff with accommodations who are unvaccinated will not be required to wear masks on campus. Regular testing will occur only for unvaccinated students. Faculty teaching on campus may want to consider wearing masks on campus, as the vaccination or accommodation status of students will not be shared with faculty.
The University has recently announced a number of changes, including a transition of part-time faculty from Lecturer to Adjunct titles, and adjustments to the criteria for promotions for full-time faculty. Graney did not share any information on pay scales for part-time faculty, or how UArts faculty are to be selected for service work. Many departments have requested teaching and professional resumes for review. In general, Graney’s responses did not provide us with new information that wasn’t already delineated in recent emails from the UArts Administration.
Although we had a productive conversation, with progress being made on Union Security, we continue having to explain to UArts Administration that we will not be referencing outside documents like the Faculty Handbook in our union contract. It bears mentioning that the language of our Academic Freedom proposal was taken directly from the handbook, but UArts doesn’t want the same exact language in our Union contract. Why doesn’t UArts want to be held accountable to their own standards?

Session 10: July 22, 2021
The UArts Bargaining Team has now passed over ALL of their non-economic proposals, yet the UArts Administration continued to show disrespect at the table by stalling. Still no agreements were reached during this session.
This was the first session where UArts Administration allowed a Mediator to be present. A Mediator is a neutral third party whose role it is to make sure the Bargaining Process moves forward. The UArts Administration continued their slow movement at the table but were markedly more professional with a third party observer.
Our Bargaining Team requested that Vice President for Academic Affairs Carol Graney join us at the next session to answer several of our questions, and to speak on a rumored plan to compress the seven current ranks for part-time faculty into three.

Session 9: July 14, 2021
The UArts Administration and their representation from Morgan Lewis kept our Bargaining Team, Negotiator, and observing faculty waiting for over an hour with no warning of delay. They passed partial responses with sweeping redactions to just a couple of our proposals only minutes before the meeting was originally scheduled to begin, giving our team no time to look over the materials.
These gestures show the extent of their UArts Admin’s respect for faculty, students, and the quality of education at the University. They are here to advance a business, not a place of learning.
Among their responses was a refusal to bargain over Affirmative Action. They also refused to sign off on language taken directly from the faculty handbook concerning Academic Freedom. The UArts Administration is communicating the idea that issues covered in Governance Manuals or the Faculty Handbook are not worth bargaining over. These documents can be changed unilaterally by UArts Admin - what UArts Faculty want is for policies to be codified in our union’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Throughout this session, the UArts Administration continued to express values that they claim are important to the University, such as Shared Governance, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, while resisting the implementation of policies that would meaningfully demonstrate those values.
Our UArts Faculty Union is fighting to protect these values at the table.

Session 8: June 16, 2021
We have filed a Unit Clarification Petition with the NLRB on behalf of Contested Faculty, and UArts Admin STILL presents NO written responses to our comprehensive non-economic proposals.
Inaction appears to be the UArts Administration’s stalling tactic of choice. Our Bargaining Team has provided the administration with all of our comprehensive non-economic proposals at their request and in good faith. The administration has had the lion’s share of these proposals for well over a month, and we still have not received a written response to any of them.
At the June 16th session, we asked the UArts Admin to respond in full, and in writing, to all of our non-economic proposals at our next Bargaining Session on June 23rd. We expect written responses to our Shared Governance and Affirmative Action proposals at this session at the very least.
Our Faculty Union is also working beyond the Bargaining Table to give every full and part-time faculty member the protection of our union. We have taken the matter of contested faculty to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by filing a Unit Clarification Petition, which asks the NLRB to hold hearings and provide a formal ruling on which faculty should be in our union.

Session 7: May 19, 2021
Over 40 Faculty attend Open Bargaining & UArts Admin still has no responses to our proposals.
Faculty made their presence known! We had an overwhelming turnout of over 40 faculty members for the May 19th Open Bargaining Session. This strong showing, along with the Bargaining Team’s submission of nearly all of our non-economic proposals, demonstrates our investment in a strong contract. The UArts Administration was again notably ill-prepared to respond.
Eight contested faculty members shared statements about their experience at UArts and their investment in our Faculty Union. These statements included descriptions of each contested faculty member’s work duties, making it absolutely clear that they are not supervisors or managers and therefore should be eligible to join our Union. The UArts Administration STILL has not provided clear job descriptions or evidence as to why these colleagues should be excluded.
The UArts Administration offered no general statements nor any specific responses to our proposals to date, some of which they have had in hand for over a month. They’ve also offered no response to our Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Assistant Professors that was presented to them in April. The MOU is a pressing issue, stating that the University cannot use the COVID19 pandemic to prevent Assistant Professors from being promoted.

Session 6: April 28, 2021
UArts Admin accuses our union of being “exploitative” by inviting a student leader to the Bargaining Table. The Preamble is Temporarily Agreed upon.
Eighteen faculty members attended our fifth bargaining session to show support of our Shared Governance proposal, along with one student, Trina Edwards, the UArts NAACP Chapter President.
Our lead negotiator asked the UArts Admin directly why they dismissed our Shared Governance proposal and why UArts administration believes faculty and students do not deserve a voice on the Board of Trustees. UArts administration left the bargaining table when Trina was introduced as a student invested in Shared Governance, accusing the Faculty Union of exploiting students. (It is a common practice for students to show support for their faculty and attend Open Bargaining sessions). 
VP for Finance Stephen Lightcap and HR Director Christine Schaefer, members of the UArts administration’s team, never returned to the table.
Trina made a statement that gracefully and powerfully encapsulates the feelings of this union on why Shared Governance matters, and why students should have a voice in these conversations: “Our tuition dollars are what keep this school running. Between faculty salary, facility repairs and upkeep, food, housing, the administration’s salary, I believe it’s completely justified for students to be involved in these discussions with the representatives of the university.”
Our Bargaining Team also presented counter-proposal on the proposed $150 course cancellation payments (addressed in our Fourth Bargaining Session), proposing instead a percentage of the entire semester’s pay.
We have now passed eleven proposals across the table to UArts Administration. We had been promised a response to all outstanding proposals for this session. This promise was not kept.
The Bargaining Team and UArts administration were able to come to one agreement over a Temporary Agreement for the Preamble of the contact.
What was perhaps most notable about this Bargaining Session was what administration did NOT do. UArts administration offered:
No response to our Grievance Procedure
No response to our Shared Governance Proposal
No proposals of their own
No conversation with our student attendee whatsoever

Session 5: April 21, 2021
UArts Admin rejects our entire Shared Governance proposal.
At this Bargaining Session, the UArts Administration dismissed the Bargaining Team’s Shared Governance proposal out of hand.
This was a show of blatant disregard for both student and faculty interests. Admin’s representatives suggested that the team should focus on just one part of our proposal, a Labor Management committee, instead of fully meaningful Shared Governance. Shared Governance was one of the faculty’s main priorities on our Bargaining Survey, and, as our lead negotiator made clear to administration yesterday, students come to UArts because of faculty. We made it clear that we expect a full and detailed response to this proposal.
The Bargaining Team also presented a proposal on Job Descriptions, which addresses hiring priority for adjuncts, and presented a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on extending Assistant Professor contracts due to COVID19.

Session 4: April 14, 2021
UArts Admin finally presents their first counter-proposals, which are problematic for many reasons.
UArts administration presented their first counter-proposals to our team on Academic Freedom, Course Cancellation, Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity, the Preamble, and a No-Strike Clause. The University’s proposals are problematic on a number of levels.
On Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity - the administration has made it clear it is not interested in creating a policy that moves an Affirmative Action platform forward.
The University’s No-Strike proposal contests our right to any kind of protest or public action during the life of our union contract.
The administration’s proposed compensation for Lecturers & Adjuncts for a course that’s canceled prior to the start of a semester is a flat $150. This proposed compensation would cover only two hours of labor for a Master Lecturer!
The administration also responded to our Information Request, in part. This response did not offer any satisfactory answers as to why workloads vary so greatly between schools at UArts, or why studio courses are compensated differently from lecture courses.

Session 3: March 23, 2021
We discussed Contested Faculty, the Salary Restoration MOU, and presented 3 new proposals.
The Bargaining Team spent the majority of our third bargaining session discussing "Contested Faculty" with the UArts Administration and their lawyer. The University persists in its efforts to limit the size of our Bargaining Unit while unfortunately demonstrating no real understanding of the specifics of the Contested Faculty’s job responsibilities.
The Bargaining Team also presented three new proposals to UArts. These proposals address Course Cancellations, Unions Rights, and Union Security. However, the only proposal that has received any response from UArts whatsoever is a standard Separability clause, which we have reached agreement on. This clause simply states that if any section of the contract is found to be invalid due to state or federal law, it will not invalidate the entire contract. Our Bargaining Team has passed nearly a dozen proposals across the table to the UArts Administration, however, no other response has been offered to date.
The administration has also not yet signed the agreed upon MOU for Full-Time Faculty Wage Restoration, which states that the promised full-time faculty salary restoration will have no bearing on future union salary negotiations. The UArts administration has stated that faculty wages will be restored in the March 25/26, 2021 pay period. All full-time faculty should check their pay stubs to be sure that UArts is following through on this promise!

Session 2: March 8, 2021
We presented a series of group of proposals that are standard elements of a Higher Ed union contract, and asked UArts Administration to sign the MOU on Salary Restoration.
Our second bargaining session marked our first Open Bargaining session, which invites any member of the union to join the meeting and observe the process.
We presented a group of proposals that included standard elements of a Higher Education union contract: preamble, academic freedom, zipper clause, non-discrimination, affirmative action, and separability, which lay the foundation for our rights as workers.
We also asked the UArts Administration to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that we presented at our first bargaining session, on restoring faculty salaries. The MOU makes it clear that restoring faculty wages cannot be considered a raise nor part of our salary proposals for our contract. Morgan Lewis advised UArts Administration not to sign the MOU at yesterday’s session, stating that it was “moot” since President Yager had already announced that faculty salaries would be restored. We made it clear that we need not only a commitment from President Yager to restore faculty wages, but also for Yager and the UArts Administration to sign the MOU.

Session 1: March 2, 2021
Bargaining begins with proposals on Salary Restoration and defining which faculty are to be included in our Bargaining Unit.
We entered our first bargaining session seeking to 1) establish who should be covered by our first UArts Union contract, and 2) demand that the UArts administration restore all full-time faculty salaries to their pre-covid levels before full contract negotiations begin, making it clear that restoring full-time faculty salaries cannot be misrepresented as raises in pay.
We provided UArts with three proposals to cover these issues. We addressed which faculty members/ranks/classifications should be included in our union through both a Bargaining Unit Eligibility Side Letter as well as a Recognition Clause that would be included directly in our union contract. Salary restoration was addressed with a proposed Memorandum of Understanding. 
President Yager and the other representatives of UArts indicated that they will respond to our proposals on or by the next Bargaining Session on March 8th.
UPDATE: Faculty received an email on March 5th that ALL faculty salaries are being restored!