Your united FAM-L/FAM-T negotiating team worked many long hours this semester to lay the groundwork for a strong foundational contract. In the new year, once all proposals have been exchanged and as membership continues to grow, we’ll start to see the fruits of their labor.
To set the table for productive negotiations this spring, before you leave for the holidays, we ask you to do two small tasks to support your team and your colleagues:
1. Vote YES to Reinstate AFCEA by December 21st
Six more days to vote! Large turnout and an overwhelming “yes” vote will show management that faculty and librarians are standing united to demand change — in this case, reinstatement of an important shared governance committee. Vote by 5pm ET Thursday, December 21. Find out more here.
Search your email for your ballot. The link is in message sent by Academic Affairs on December 7. If you don’t see it, contact Jenn Walter in the Provost’s office at 513-529-6721 or jenn.walter@miamioh.edu.
2. Become a FAM Member!
Have you joined the majority of your colleagues as a member of FAM yet? Every new member increases your negotiating team’s leverage at the bargaining table.
It’s easy: fill out this membership card, sign the bottom on both pages, and email it to info@famiami.org. Or talk to your liaison.
Here’s what happened today
Our FAM negotiating team made steady progress in today’s negotiations. Thanks to our growing membership base and our active volunteers, we are continuing to gain momentum at this bargaining table. Today, the team passed across —
- A strong, robust proposal on Promotion, Tenure, and Evaluation. This proposal will ensure that expectations and decision-making about librarian tenure and promotion are transparent and that pathways to rising in rank are clear. It introduces illustrative tables and timelines for our librarians to better gauge the timing and impact of their service and scholar activities. Overall, it seeks a sustainable and more equitable process.
- A proposal on Financial Exigency that clearly identifies out procedures that Management must undertake before laying anyone off. This procedure is something we hope will never need to be used, but including it in the contract will ensure that those who are wrongfully terminated in these situations can grieve it. An article like this can also help to mitigate uncertainty and curb any arbitrary actions that could bring harm to our members.
Other proposals and discussions
- Our team rejected management’s No Strike, No Lockout proposal, pointing out that the original proposal lacked “no lockout” language, and would be disastrous to our members. Management returned with an updated version that repaired their error of omission but retained the rest of the overly expansive proposal. Our team will work on reviewing it in the coming weeks.
- Both teams exchanged counterproposals on: Dues Deduction, Separability, and Purpose, with a Tentative Agreement (TA) reached on the latter. Both sides grow closer to an agreement on Dues Deduction, which ensures that the money of our members are deducted properly by Management, with the promise to discuss it next week.
- FAM-L bargaining will be back in Oxford next time! Perhaps management will finally agree to hold FAM-T bargaining there as well.
Sign up to come to the bargaining sessions next week! FAM-T will be bargaining on Tuesday, December 19th (currently awaiting a confirmed location). FAM-L will be in Oxford at the Clinical Health Science Building on Thursday, December 21st. Your turnout matters! Support your FAM team and show the administrators at the bargaining table that faculty want them to work with us, not against us.
We’ll see you at the next bargaining session. Solidarity always!
—Your FAM Negotiating Team
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