The tone from management was more conciliatory today at FAM-L negotiations, following this morning’s Board of Trustees action (great turnout and solidarity!) and last session’s dramatic ending, in which FAM put management on notice that librarians won our unit unanimously and are prepared to fight for our contract.
FAM reaffirmed our stance on academic freedom protections for librarians at Miami this morning. In response to management’s question about our Online Instructional Content proposal, FAM fired back: “It has been asserted that librarians don’t enjoy the same level of academic freedom as faculty. We dispute that, and this would codify it.”
We also passed—get ready!—fourteen new proposals across the table, each of which would improve life for librarians at Miami:
- Credit-bearing courses
- Sick leave
- Academic leaves
- Flexible Spending Accounts
- Employee Health Programs
- Retirement Plan Contributions
- Salary Adjustment Studies
- Other Leaves
- Reimbursement for Travel Mileage, Parking, and Tolls
- Emeritus/a Librarians
- Employment of Members of the Same Family
- Mandatory Furloughs
- Maintenance of Policies and Practices
Many of today’s new proposals expand and clarify various benefits, including leaves, retirement plan contributions, and salary equity adjustments. We believe our Academic Leaves proposal is particularly important, given that it would help support librarians’ research and service work in anticipation of preparing their dossiers for promotion (a benefit that is currently deferred until after promotion). Follow along with the status of our proposals at the Proposal Tracker on our website!
If you believe Miami librarians have academic freedom, and ought to have protected benefits and support through the promotion process, come out to our next FAM-L bargaining session, March 18 (location TBD). And if you can’t wait that long for your bargaining fix, we’ll see you Monday, February 26 at FAM-T bargaining, Demske Staff Development Center, 424 Wells Mill Dr., Oxford, OH 45056. RSVP by clicking the button below!
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