Gainesville.com

UF faculty: Dispute on contract at impasse

The union complains that salaries have fallen behind other major universities.

By Nathan Crabbe

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

After nearly six years without a contract, the University of Florida’s faculty union has declared an impasse in negotiations over issues such as faculty salaries.

A special magistrate will now try to settle the contract dispute between the union and university. Unresolved issues include salaries that lag behind those at other major universities, according to the union.

“It’s about the right to a job at a pay that is fair,” said Tom Auxter, a philosophy professor at UF who heads the statewide United Faculty of Florida union.

The union represents about 1,800 faculty members in UF colleges including education, engineering and liberal arts. The impasse is the latest in a series of disputes that means UF’s union-represented faculty lacks a contract, while Auxter said other state universities have moved on to their second or third contracts.

For three years, UF refused to negotiate while it battled with the union in court. After negotiations resumed in November 2005, the union said stopgap measures were instituted to prevent an impasse as agreement was reached on more than 60 issues.

But union officials said the administration has tried to nullify some of those agreements in recent months, include a clause that makes it more difficult to lay off faculty.

“They don’t want to be bound by the rules (and) they don’t want to spend money on current faculty,” said Chris Snodgrass, an English professor and chief negotiator for the UF chapter of the union.

Sabbaticals and intellectual property rights are among the other major unresolved issues, he said. UF officials declined to comment on the specifics of negotiations, instead issuing a more general statement.

“We understand that the budget situation has been difficult, and we still face many challenges. Nevertheless, we have a $16 million recurring budget gap to fill and we need to address it,” the statement said. “Regardless of the union-declared impasse, we will continue to negotiate with the union in good faith, and our ultimate goal continues to be reaching a satisfactory agreement.”

The impasse comes as UF tries to eliminate sick leave payouts for faculty as part of making $16.6 million in cuts. The contract dispute, however, includes longstanding complaints such as lagging pay.

UF faculty salaries have gone from being in the middle of members of the American Association of Universities, a group representing major research universities, to being in the bottom 10 percent, according to the union. At the same time, the union found, UF administrative salaries have risen into the top 10 percent. Despite state budget cuts, Snodgrass said UF has money to spend from the federal stimulus, revenue from a tuition increase and new multi-million dollar endowments. He pointed to UF President Bernie Machen’s plan to use $10 million in stimulus money to hire up to 100 new faculty.

“They do have the money and they’re spending it, they just don’t want to spend it on current faculty,” he said.

The impasse means a magistrate will be brought in to offer recommendations that can be accepted or denied by either party. Other issues include sabbaticals given to professors to conduct research, which Snodgrass said have been cut by a third. He said UF also is trying to control intellectual property rights of course material produced by faculty, allowing it to keep most of the money generated.

Salaries form the crux of several issues, including a raise program that the union said has been given to a decreasing number of senior faculty. Auxter said the current system means longtime faculty can be paid less than those who are newly hired.

Administrators have stopped negotiating those type of issues, he said. “They took it seriously for a while, but now that it gets to money they’re making a mockery of the process,” he said.

• UF faculty salaries have gone from being in the middle range of reporting members of the American Association of Universities (AAU) to being now in the bottom 10 percent.  At the same time and in the same group, UF administrative salaries have risen into the top 10 percent.
• The percentage of faculty raises in the Salary Plan for Professors fell to less than half of those judged to have qualified for the raise.

Statement of UFF-UF President John Biro (Received September 19)

After four years of negotiations, the United Faculty of Florida (UFF) and the Board of Trustees (BOT) are at impasse on significant issues of fundamental faculty working conditions. Over the past few months it has become transparent that the Trustees have been doing everything they can to avoid completing an agreement.  Recently, instead of wrapping up the new Contract and immediately reopening some articles, as previously agreed, they have tried to nullify already finished articles and start over. No Contract can be completed if one party keeps signing agreements, then later backing out, again and again.

In the past, UFF has accepted stopgap administrative proposals to avoid impasse, in the hope of concluding the negotiations in good faith.  Unfortunately, the Trustees’ repeated refusal to seek compromise on the remaining issues or to honor the agreements they have already made makes clear that such a conclusion is no longer possible.

For the United Faculty of Florida, commitment of funds to programs and enforceable contractual criteria and procedures are essential bottom lines. The BOT, however, insists on total discretion over key criteria and procedures, and refuses to commit specific funds.

Aside from the already agreed-to articles that the BOT now wants to renege on, the main issues still unresolved are:

BOT: No salary plan.

UF faculty salaries have gone from being in the middle range of reporting AAU universities to being now in the bottom 10%.  At the same time, UF administrative salaries have risen into the top 10%.

Sabbaticals and FEOs

BOT: Cut the number of sabbaticals, commit no definite funding to FEOs for bargaining-unit faculty, and refuse to put FEO rights into the Contract so those rights can be enforced.

BOT: Awards and funding entirely at the discretion of the President.

Result: The proportion of awardees to applying faculty has declined every year and is now less than half the proportion for promotions generally. Indeed, after the selection procedure was changed last year, the percentage of awardees fell even further—to less than half of those judged to have qualified for the raise.

BOT:  Faculty could be assigned, against their will, to create original works to be owned by the BOT.

Faculty would be stripped of rights to their intellectual property and could be, in effect, conscripted to produce online courses and other materials that the BOT would then own and control.

If you have any questions, contact John Biro at president(at)uff-uf.org

See related UFF-FAU post:

• “Bernie” Machen sees fit to hire 100 new faculty with stimulus dollars, New revenue stream from tuition