Inform yourself and then vote on the proposed UNTF contract

UNTF members can vote on the proposed UNTF contract this Thursday May 20. Details were emailed to members and can also be currently found on the UNTF website homepage: http://untf.org/

Union contract FAQ posted on UNTF website

Several UNTF members have been hard at work creating a FAQ based on the flurry of questions UNTF members may have noticed in their email inboxes in the past few days. You may find the FAQ on the UNTF website: http://untf.org/UNTFFAQ.pdf

Email UNTF sent members today re: new contract

If you are a UNTF member you should have received an email today from UNTF about the new contract and the ratification process happening in the next week. I can't figure out how to elegantly collapse and expand text, or attach documents, in this blog, so rather than post the whole long email here, I will refer you to the UNTF Facebook page, where the email text is posted. However, Facebook does not let you attach documents either. If you did not get the email and thus those documents (which include a form for a proxy vote if you cannot be there in person next week to vote on ratifying the contract), please contact UNTF--office@untf.org or call 517-203-0880.

And more on the contract...

I mentioned the contract secures members' salary raises for the next few years, and a path to 3 year contracts. I want to emphasize that the way I read the contract, you are free to try to negotiate a better deal with your chair, as before the contract. I myself have a multi year appointment, satisfactory salary, and my pay raises have exceeded those secured by this contract. I am hoping to continue working under these conditions once my current appointment runs out.

HOWEVER, I am aware we have the current economic downturn (which the MSU administration has labelled as a "crisis" and used as a pretext to corporatize this university). Given this "crisis", if this contract did not exist, I doubt my pay raises would exceed what we achieved in the contract. For example, tenure track faculty have been forced to agree to a 0% pay raise for 2010-11, and I'm pretty sure any tenure track faculty pay raise for 2011-12 will be quite meager. As for me, I doubt how much leverage my chair would have to offer me another multi year contract once my current one runs out [the chair often has to ask the dean who has to ask the provost]. I felt my most realistic non-unionized scenario was reappointment under a series of 1 year contracts. But now, with the contract, I at least have a safety net of guaranteed raises (OK, not guaranteed, these are "merit" raises where each unit will determine how to divide the pot of money among its UNTF members, but it has to go to them) and a clear path to 3 year contracts.

Despite my fortunate position (it's really not that great, but compared to the horror stories I've heard about how other members have been treated, I feel fortunate), I voted for the union and spent countless hours on the bargaining team because I believe in unions, know that I would have been very vulnerable to the whims of any new chair that may come in my department, and that as a non-tenure track, non-unionized faculty I was an easy mark in the game of budget cuts. My individual talents, fame, value, "indispensability", whatever they may be, count for ZERO in this high stakes game. As universities have become corporatized, administrators have gained tremendous power vis a vis the faculty in academia. Witness the huge salaries and continued large raises MSU administrators continue to enjoy during this economic "crisis" and their ability to cut programs and academic staff at will (allegedly they run all of this by the faculty via "academic governance" but at MSU this is largely a rubber-stamp process). A union is the only viable countervailing force I could see in this setting. Our contract may not be perfect, but having it and a union make me sleep much better at night.

More on the contract

[These are truly my opinions, not UNTF's] Our last post before we reached agreement with the MSU administration mentioned 2 outstanding items. What became of those 2 items?

1. Salary raises: we really wanted a big raise the first year, the really wanted 0% the first year, we got 0% the first year. But in exchange for that, we got slightly higher raises the next few years.

2. A HUGE achievement was getting them to agree to a system where you eventually are eligible to apply for 3 year contracts. Going into the last day of negotiations 5/12, the problem was they wanted you to serve 10 CONSECUTIVE semesters to do be eligible. After LOTS of back and forth, we got them to agree to 10 semesters over 6 years, so if you took a semester or two off, you would not lose this time served. We asked for lowering the requirement to 8 semesters but that was a non-starter. Really, we were lucky to get this deal, it will dramatically improve job security for many of our members. And you may get to count up to 4 semesters of service prior to the contract.

The first issue was pay raises over the next few years; I don't have the document in front of me, but they WOULD NOT budge on the 0% pay raise for 2010-11. I think it's partly because tenure track faculty have agreed to a 0% pay raise for that period, so it would cause some controversy if non-tenure track faculty got anything better than that (never mind the fact that even a 10% pay raise would not bring most of us close to the average salaries enjoyed by tenure track faculty). We did get modest pay raises for the following years-great for many members who have not enjoyed a raise in many years. Even for those of us who have enjoyed merit raises, this is a good cushion should MSU finances continue to give the administration a pretext to keep pay raises low or at 0% for non-unionized folks. I hoped for higher pay raises, but in this economic and political climate, I think we were lucky to get what we did. And if you feel you are essential and valued by the market, nothing is stopping you from trying to get a higher raise or better salary, the contract just provides a safety net.

WE HAVE OUR FIRST CONTRACT! STUDY & DISCUSS IT. RATIFICATION VOTE NEXT WEEK!

UNTF members should have received an email today May 14 with details about our first contract. Agreement was reached with MSU just after midnight on Thursday, several hours after having started negotiations on Wednesday at 3PM. Full details about the contract are in that email.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact us at office@untf.org or at 517-203-0880.

4:15 PM May 12--Bargaining right now: waiting for mediator

The UNTF bargaining team is waiting for the mediator. At this point, we believe that there are only two outstanding issues that need to be resolved. One is our request for an across-the-board pay raise in year 1 of the contract. And the second concerns the definition of the amount of time required to be able to obtain a multi-year contract. The university says that we can apply for a multi-year contact only after 10 consecutive semesters of teaching with only summer breaks. We want them to remove the word ?consecutive? because some of our members have breaks in teaching at other times of the year. The mediator will come to determine our position and then go speak to the administration team to determine theirs. Earlier there was a wonderful group of members meeting outside of Nisbet Building to show their support and demand for the university to negotiate a fair contract. Right now, there are about 15 people here to support the UNTF negotiation team.