Thanks to YOUR hard work and actions over the past month, we WON academic freedom protections that are stronger than current policy! 💪
Today at FAM-T bargaining, we won the language on Academic Freedom that is a top priority for our members, including reference to the AAUP 1940 statement and its 1970 amendments. We also signed a tentative agreement (TA) on Separability, ensuring that should any part of the contract be made illegal by law, the rest of the contract is still valid.
FAM also presented counters on Leaves and Academic Leaves today. We are fighting to make sure that we can protect important leaves, including increasing the amount of paid parental leave and ensuring that sick leave will accrue without limit. Research is also an important part of our jobs — we are standing firm that our faculty continue to receive Assigned Research Appointments (at least one every 10 years) and Faculty Improvement Leaves to do this important work.
Management shared four counters today: Benefits, Appointment, Renewal, and Promotion of TCPL Faculty, Appointment and Promotion of TT/T Faculty, and Faculty Evaluations. We continue to argue vehemently with management about TCPL faculty renewal (unless there is cause, TCPL faculty presumptively renew at the end of each contract period). Our proposal aligns with past practice and current policy; management is insisting on undoing that practice and policy. We are also still in strong disagreement with management on post-tenure review, which (according to their language) would lead to discipline and termination for tenured faculty.
As always, you can read all proposals in full at our website!
Unfortunately, we are still waiting for management’s counter on Compensation. They’ve had three months to get their counter together — we’ve waited long enough. We made it clear at the table that our members are tired of waiting for their hard work to be valued by management, and are ready to take action.
Want more details about negotiations and how YOU can help us to win on these and other key issues? Come to today’s General Membership Meeting in King Library 320 or on Zoom (11:40-1:00 pm) to learn more! Please RSVP to confirm your membership and let us know you’re coming! Pizza provided through a donation from a generous Emeritus FAM supporter! 🍕
Can’t come to the meeting today? You can still help! Save the date for our first-ever Practice Picket, October 18 from 12-2pm. Chat with your liaison for more details.
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FAM Fact of the Day
Q: Is FAM’s initial 7% raise proposal outlandishly large?
A: Possibly working at Miami has trained employees here to have low expectations! 7% barely catches you up to the cost of living increases of the past few years. What’s more, faculty and librarians were not given fair raises for several previous academic periods and the proposals are meant to put us on even footing with others in academia and the region. The latest data from SERB shows Ohio unionized workers receiving average raises of 6.05% in the first year of the contract.
FAM’s pay proposal was developed by a group representing a wide range of faculty and librarian interests and needs and informed by diligent research. We had advice and assistance from national AFT and AAUP experts and our local union siblings. Our Compensation Group includes a full professor with tenure from the department of Finance who is attentive to the university budget, a senior TCPL in the Humanities who was a longtime chair of the Faculty Welfare committee, a tenured faculty member from the Regionals, a tenured economics professor, and a librarian specializing in data science, among others.
PS: Get answers here to your questions about raises, pace of bargaining, and more.
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