We begin today’s bargaining update with a tribute to Dr. Phill Alexander, your Negotiating Team’s first chair and a lead organizer for FAM. FAM mourns the loss of our beloved colleague, who worked tirelessly on behalf of his colleagues and for a better Miami to help organize and lead our union. Read our tribute to Phill here.
At the FAM-L table today, with a packed room of red-shirted FAM members, we passed a veritable flurry of proposals trying to get this contract done for you:
- Probationary Period
- Credit Bearing Courses
- Professional Development and Reimbursement for Travel
- Package: D&D and G&A
- Benefits: Sick Leave
- Benefits: Vacation Leave
- Compensation
We are committed to ensuring our librarians can afford the activities they need to keep their jobs, including attending conferences and joining professional organizations. We are narrowing in on the issues surrounding our members’ time off, specifically allowing for more vacation and sick time so that members can take care of themselves and their loved ones.
We reached Tentative Agreement (TA) on two articles: Grievance and Arbitration and Discipline and Discharge. These important articles protect our members with a just cause process for discipline that is stronger than current policy and with a clear and fair process for grieving contract violations.
Management countered today on Compensation, moving the tiniest amount on annual wage increases from 1.5% to 1.75%. They made no other movement, including on promotion amounts or salary minimums. As FAM-L lead negotiator noted at the table, “this is not movement.”
We responded immediately with our own counter on Compensation, holding to fair salary floors and raises. This latest proposal includes a 8.25% raise the first year and 6% the second year. Our librarians deserve to be paid fairly for the work that they provide for our local and university communities. Currently Miami librarians’ average salaries at all ranks are less than minimum salaries at other Ohio public universities such Kent State and Bowling Green State University.
Management also countered on:
- Promotion
- Annual Evaluations
- Association Rights, Management Rights, and withdrawing Shared Governance (package)
- Duration
SAVE THE DATE! On December 13th, we are planning a major show of force and we need as many people as possible to demonstrate the strength of solidarity. We need YOU there to get this contract done!
You can read all proposals in full at our website!
ICYMI: 80% of the librarian unit signed an open letter to Jerome Conley, Dean of the University Libraries, and hand-delivered it on Wednesday morning, asking him to support the educational mission of the university by supporting a fair contract now. The open letter has been printed in The Miami Student as well as Citybeat. In it, librarians state that “Our goal is a fair contract that works for us all, with which we can jointly create win-win solutions that benefit our librarians, the university and the community we serve.”
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FAM Question of the Day
When and how do I vote on our contract?
- Once your Negotiating Team has reached tentative agreement on all articles, we will share the contract with members and explain its provisions. You will have time to review, consider, discuss, and ask questions about the contract. A democratic vote by the membership of FAM will follow.
- Voting is by FAM membership only. All faculty and librarians who have signed membership cards to join FAM AAUP-AFT are eligible to vote to approve or disapprove the contract. Download or request your FAM membership card.
- Faculty and librarians will vote separately on their contracts; however, librarians and faculty remain part of one union, FAM.
PS: Get answers here to your questions about raises, pace of bargaining, and more.
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