Faculty Alliance of Miami: FAM

FAM Updates

  • FAM-T Bargaining, Day 3

    FAM-T Bargaining, Day 3

    “No” is a complete sentence, but so is “Yes, academic freedom is part of faculty working conditions!” Today, September 26, 2023, marked FAM-T’s third bargaining session. FAM’s Negotiating Team once again made the long drive to Voice of America to bargain the administration in good faith. The team were met with a number of frustrating…

  • Sam Morris’ Opening Statement and FAM’s Commitment to Miami’s Academic Future

    Sam Morris’ Opening Statement and FAM’s Commitment to Miami’s Academic Future

    Our class-sizes are swelling, our faculty lines are stagnant or shrinking or increasingly precarious, we are constantly being asked to do more with less and so many of us just find the fire to get it done because we love our students, we love our colleagues, we love our jobs, we love our University and…

  • Faculty Bargaining: Day 2

    Faculty Bargaining: Day 2

    Tuesday, September 12th, marked our second bargaining session. Our negotiating team made progress in reinstituting suspended shared governance committees and more (see “On the plus side” below), but the team did encounter several frustrations. Miami’s outside lawyers 1) Continued to stonewall on our MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) asking for 2% raises to be extended to faculty in…

  • First Day of Bargaining!

    First Day of Bargaining!

    Today, our faculty-librarian negotiating team sat at a long table across from two outside lawyers, a couple of lawyers from the Miami General Counsel office, and three deans from 10am till almost 7pm on the VoA campus. We had a collegial discussion and reached agreement on several items. Much remains to discuss! We can tell…

  • Why Librarians and Faculty Units Should Negotiate Together

    Here’s the speech that librarian and FAM chief negotiator Ginny Boehme made at the table on the first day of bargaining to explain why the tenure-track/TCPL and librarian units should negotiate together: “When FAM first started organizing, librarians were included right from the get-go. To our faculty colleagues, we were considered an integral part of…

  • Welcome Back, FAM!

    Colleagues,  Welcome back, FAM! We’ve had a fabulous summer and hope you have, too! Since winning back-to-back elections in May and June, we’ve been hard at work building our Bargaining Council, curating our Negotiating Team, developing our bargaining platform, and writing proposals that will improve working conditions for faculty and librarians at Miami.  We know…

  • FAM-LIBRARIANS VOICE IS UNANIMOUS #unionyes!

    FAM-LIBRARIANS VOICE IS UNANIMOUS #unionyes!

    FAM-ily were in Columbus this morning for the Librarian’s Unit vote count at the State Employment Relations Board. The count took only 15 minutes and the results were amazing. The vote was 28-0 on 90% turnout. Here’s the full Twitter thread of the morning’s news. More details coming tomorrow! #FAMLibrarians won their unit UNANIMOUSLY in a…

  • Bargaining & Raises: What You Need to Know

    Bargaining & Raises: What You Need to Know

    Miami’s TCPL and tenured, and tenure-track faculty have won the right to collectively bargain through FAM, and librarians are not far behind. Bargaining will start soon! FAM has already contacted Miami University to express our intent to bargain. For a strong contract, it’s important that as many colleagues as possible are informed and involved in…

  • FAM Librarian Union Election Begins!

    FAM Librarian Union Election Begins!

    It’s Time To Vote Yes! FAM librarians! Voting for your FAM Librarians AAUP-AFT union begins May 23 and continues through June 6. To count, your confidential ballot must be correctly filled out (please mark your vote with an “X,” not some other mark!) and mailed within this two-week window.  Be sure to sign the outside of your…