The pressure you are putting on is resulting in movement at the table! Your negotiating team has made good progress since the semester started: only about 15 proposals remain to negotiate, with compensation and job security the two major sticking points remaining.
Job security: Through separate proposals, Management is pushing to make all three categories represented by FAM—TCPL, librarians, and tenure-eligible/tenured faculty—more vulnerable to dismissal without just cause and due process. This is a union-busting strategy: if management succeeds in undoing rights for any one of these groups, it could foment internal division in FAM, eroding our power to win not just on job security, but other issues such as compensation. Talk to your liaison to understand how Management’s proposals impact your colleagues in other categories and commit to standing united to face down these threats.
Compensation: We’ve waited over three months for Management’s counter-proposal on compensation. Their first proposal of raises averaging 1.25% did not come anywhere close to addressing increases in the cost of living.
Important agreements achieved on the FAM-T side on Discipline and Discharge and Academic Freedom. These articles are both crucial for librarians too and the team is still negotiating toward them for FAM-L.
We’re close to compromise on benefits and leaves.
Management can ignore your negotiating team’s arguments at the table unless they are backed up by pressure from you and your colleagues through actions like the Practice Picket. So the team has been gratified and warmed by the strong show of support since the semester started — keep it up, we are getting closer to winning our first contract!
Community Support
We’ve had remarkable support recently from community allies.
Almost 600 alumni, students, and community members have sent letters to President Crawford and to VP Creamer, Miami’s CFO, to tell them to stop stalling and agree to fair raises and a fair contract. Ask your network to send them a letter!
And, Ohio House Minority Leader Alison Russo and 22 Ohio House Representatives have written to President Crawford and the Board of Trustees to “express…support for the Faculty Alliance of Miami (FAM AAUP-AFT) members who are doing the important work of educating the next generation of Miami students, stressing that you, the faculty and librarians, are “the reason that Miami University is ranked No. 3 out of all public universities in the country in Undergraduate Teaching.”
How You Can Help
Management can’t ignore your negotiating team’s arguments at the table when they are backed up by pressure from you and your colleagues through actions like the Practice Picket. So the team has been gratified and warmed by the strong show of support since the semester started. Keep it up, we are getting closer to winning our first contract!
Attend the Practice Picket! RSVP here.
FAM needs your ideas on actions, messaging, and other methods for escalating pressure on management to bring your contract home! Please share them on this form.
FAM’s Committee on Political Education is distributing nonpartisan League of Women Voters Voting Guides. Pass the guides along to your registered student voters and encourage them to vote on or before November 5! Get yours from your liaison or write info@famiami.org. Remind your students they can get a sample ballot and information on candidates and issues at vote411.org.
Attend upcoming bargaining and mark your calendars to wear red on bargaining days! Locations and Zoom links here: FAM-L, Thursday, October 17 and Tuesday, October 22; FAM-T, Thursday, October 24
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