June 25, 2009
On June 22 UFF-FAU Contract Enforcement Chair Douglas Broadfield filed a Grievance with the FAU administration on behalf of four of the five faculty members of the College of Engineering and Computer Science. A second Chapter Grievance on behalf of UFF-FAU was also filed. The Grievances allege that the FAU Administration violated Sections 1 thru 5 of Article 13 (Layoffs) of the UFF-BOT Collective Bargaining Agreement when it issued termination notices to five tenured faculty members in the COECS on May 29. The next step before formal arbitration proceedings begin will be for representatives of UFF-FAU and FAUBOT to select an arbitrator to hear arguments. The ruling of the arbitrator in such a case is binding on both parties.
In late May UFF-FAU President James Tracy requested documents from the FAU Administration concerning the then pending layoffs in Engineering, including pertinent electronic and non-electronic communications between administrative offices and minutes of meetings attended by outside consultants and administrators directly involved in the layoffs. Under Florida Statute 447 and the UFF-FAUBOT CBA the Administration is required to release such documents. Broadfield filed a second request for the documents on June 22.
Read the June 29 media coverage of the above at palmbeachpost.com