‘—–Original Message—–
From: John Biro, UFF-UF President
To: Auxter <>; Thomas P
Sent: Wed, Jan 13, 2010 8:28 pm
Subject: Contract agreement reached
Dear Colleague,
After almost five years of contract negotiations, the bargaining teams for UFF-UF and the UF Board of Trustees have signed a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to take effect upon ratification by the faculty and the trustees. The ratification vote for the faculty is scheduled for the 16th and the 17th of February.
The agreement reached on Monday contains numerous advances over the previous (state-wide) CBA and provides for stronger protections of faculty rights and for improved benefits. We believe that it compares very favorably with faculty contracts in institutions comparable to UF.
The entire agreement will be available on the UFF-UF web site by next week. There, the sixty-odd separately signed articles will be consolidated into one searchable document. (Many of the articles tentatively agreed to earlier are already available on the UFF website.) In the next few days, we will be sending you a summary of the most important new provisions.
We will be scheduling informational meetings across campus in the next few weeks, at which members of our bargaining team will be available to answer your questions.
This is a milestone in the history of UFF-UF and an important event for all faculty. We will have our first locally negotiated contract, one geared to the specific needs and aspirations of the UF faculty. Many of you participated in the task forces set up in 2003 to formulate the Union’s bargaining position. Since then, you have shared your energy, time and wisdom in helping to further clarify our goals. We thank you and hope that you will find satisfaction in the document as it has emerged. We owe special thanks to our bargaining team, led by Chief Negotiator Chris Snodgrass, without whose skill and dedication such a result could not have been reached.
Sincerely,
John Biro
President, UFF-UF
We invite you to join UFF to help make the faculty voice stronger at UF, in Florida and in the nation.