November 28, 2009

Dear colleague,

On November 20 FAU administrators informed faculty and staff of changes to the University’s personnel policies effective October 30. Section 01, Introduction, of the policy statement states

If any policy conflicts with a provision of a collective bargaining agreement or a college administrative policy as approved by the President or designee covering certain employees, the collective bargaining agreement or college administrative policy provision will apply to those covered employees.

However, Section 08: Layoffs and Furloughs, includes ominous language that in no uncertain terms runs counter to the 2006-09 Collective Bargaining Agreement. For example, Section 08, C seeks to undermine Section 13.2 of the CBA. Section 08 C reads:

Strict seniority will not apply. Wherever possible, a tenured Faculty or Regular status employee will not be laid off if there are non-tenured, Acting, Probationary, Time Limited or Temporary employees in comparable positions with similar skills in the same layoff unit.

If implemented in the CBA, such measures would further strengthen administrators’ ability to terminate faculty, and extend the groundwork for the administration’s continued campaign to gut tenure at FAU which began in May with the reorganization of the College of Engineering and layoff of five tenured faculty members in that College.

UFF-FAU officers are particularly concerned that FAU administrators and their high-powered legal talent may be attempting to lay the preliminaries for bargaining to incorporate these policy changes. On behalf of the faculty I have accordingly notified Provost Diane Alperin shortly after receiving word of the changes. We will keep you apprised of further developments as the collective bargaining process progresses.

Please keep in mind that, more than ever, a major protection of the integrity of tenure at FAU is the Collective Bargaining Agreement UFF-FAU negotiates with the administration on the faculty’s behalf. You can support this process and receive the piece of mind of protection through binding arbitration should it be necessary by becoming a member of UFF today.

In solidarity,

James Tracy
UFF-FAU President