A message to all our colleagues in the FAM bargaining unit:
Through a public records request, FAM has learned that at the same time management were denying faculty and librarians raises, they were paying an outside consulting firm, Bain & Company, $7.29 million. For that money, they could have paid you and your colleagues the raises they denied you in 2023-24 and 2024-25 and walked away with almost $2 million in change.
Is it a coincidence that in the wake of Bain’s reports to management, we are seeing management implement top-down metrics for re-evaluating workload? If implemented without faculty’s disciplinary expertise through shared governance, the cookie-cutter scorecards could result in a double-whammy of increased teaching loads and research expectations.
FAM Is looking into how workload changes might impact bargainable issues (promotion and tenure, annual evaluations, and more) and consulting with our legal team. Share your thoughts and concerns about the new metrics here.
What can you do?
Collective action is the pathway to making a difference in your working life. Encourage your colleagues to join FAM now, to have an impact on this crucial first contract — and plan to tell the BoT how you feel at their meeting on December 13. Let’s show the board that faculty and librarians will keep increasing the pressure until we win the fair contract we deserve!
Combined with their proposed $100 to $200 million on a new basketball arena and $1.5 million on outside legal counsel—including at least $813K paid to two union-busting law firms just through August 2024—management is pulling together resources to spend well over $200 million on third parties, all while denying raises to us, the people who create the value at this institution.
Meanwhile, management is still holding out on another important priority for faculty and librarians — job security. They are refusing to codify status quo job security protections, including tenure protections, into the collective bargaining agreement.
It’s time for management to stop stalling and negotiate a reasonable contract with fair compensation. Miami clearly has the money. And we’ve waited long enough: negotiations toward your first contract have been underway for more than a year, since August 2023.
While FAM has made significant wins at the table, it’s going to take a bigger push from members to win our foundational contract. The power to win on your priorities isn’t based on laws or table negotiations. It comes from standing with your colleagues.
If you haven’t already, become a member of FAM now so you can be part of making history and part of winning a better contract for yourself and for all your colleagues. And see you at the BoT on December 13. Together we win.
Why attend bargaining?
When you’re present and visible at bargaining, management knows you care about the issues at stake and they’re more likely to move on your priorities! You provide FAM with leverage. Compensation and job security will be on the table this week. FAM-T bargains December 10 (remote) and FAM-L bargains December 11 & December 12. Wear red! and if attending on Zoom, make sure to download your FAM Zoom background.
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