We’re ramping up the pressure
As we move closer to reaching agreement on our faculty and librarian contracts, we are ramping up the pressure at the table — and throughout Oxford and surrounding areas. We’ve been posting Fair Contract Now yard signs, having our mobile billboard visit the Board of Trustees meeting and summer orientation events, attending summer orientation events with our buttons and signs on display, and packing the bargaining room.
This is a combined bargaining update covering this entire week, since we’ve been at the table every day except Tuesday. Monday, you packed the room and the Zoom and posted yard signs throughout Oxford and surrounding counties. This week at faculty bargaining, management finally backed off of their insistence that we let the Board of Trustees decide our raises in year three and gave us an actual wage increase for all three years with which we can negotiate. Moreover, management finally made significant movement on their Benefits proposal for both faculty and librarians, putting it more in line with current contract language and giving us something we can actually work with.
We are not there yet — but we’re seeing some movement based on member action and direct pressure!
On the librarian side, in addition to the movement on Benefits, this week we have also pushed management closer to agreement on overall Compensation and Professional Development Funds, and we are nearly in agreement on Probationary Period and Librarian Professional Improvement Leaves. However, this movement comes at a high price: Management is trying to put a cap on the number of librarians who can participate and observe FAM-L bargaining for all future contract negotiations. They don’t want any people outside the designated negotiating team to be able to bear witness to what is being said at the table, and they wish to escape being held accountable for their actions. Let us be clear: open bargaining is not for sale. We remain committed to our transparent, member-led, and democratic union.
Help us to close your contracts: let’s pack the bargaining room again next Tuesday, June 30!
Also this week, we submitted a formal comment on a newly proposed federal regulation that would radically change how federal funding for science works in the United States. federal agencies have to provide time for public comment when promulgating changes to federal rules. They then must respond to these rules in their final decision. If you believe there are important things that need to be addressed that we missed please submit your own comment here. You can also ask the academic societies you are part of to make comments.
Actions you can take to win YOUR contract:
- PACK THE BARGAINING ROOM on June 30 to demand a Fair Contract Now! If you take one action this summer, make it this one. Click the link for more details.
- Watch for additional ☀️summer actions☀️: New Student Orientations
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