Today’s negotiation’s remained at their slow pace; management has continued to dig their heels in.
Two days after our last bargaining session, on September 28th, the Board of Trustees passed a resolution affirming the pause of several committees including AFCEA. Management’s team further claims that even though the Board of Trustees has delegated authority to the University Senate, it retains full authority to take action. They also maintained that FAM has no right to bargain over the evaluation of administrators committee (even though it was management who said it should be brought to the table in the first place) and that FAM was wasting negotiation time by bringing up this key shared governance committee.
FAM came prepared with counter-proposals for Labor-Management Meeting and Appointments. Management’s team, however, did not come prepared to discuss any of the proposals and counter-proposals that FAM had passed across in the previous negotiation sessions, including academic freedom. Instead, Management used their caucus time throughout the day to review some of those proposals and counter-proposals to return three counter-proposals of their own: Labor-Management Meetings, Appointments, and Non-Discrimination. Both sides TA’ed the proposal for Labor-Management Meetings.
Our bargaining team passed across a proposal to bolster and protect shared governance. We outlined why shared governance is vital to the ability of the university to fulfill its mission. (Management responded that they will review the proposal to see what they are willing to discuss from it, but did not commit to answering the proposal in full. We’ll keep you updated.) We also passed across a proposal for Association Rights, which would provide fundamental structures and resources belonging to the university for FAM’s use.
Management passed two new proposals across the table: the Appointment, Renewal, and Promotion of TCPL Faculty and Management Rights. FAM will review these in the next couple of weeks.
Management and their negotiation team will continue to delay and draw out the negotiation sessions to the best of their ability. We can fight back by attending bargaining (especially in person), signing a membership card, and participating in organized actions on campus. Talk to your liaison about how else to support FAM and get involved!
Above: Rachel Makarowski’s video update on FAM-T bargaining from October 18. View all FAM video updates on TikTok @famiamioh.
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