July 16, 2010. Chief USF-BOT negotiator says will hold faculty raises up if “administrative discretionary increases” to retain “star” faculty are disallowed, “UCF faculty members have such stable jobs that salary increases are less important for them than for employees in ‘business'”.

(July 15, 2010)

Report on the Impasse Hearing

Dear Colleague,

Yesterday, the impasse hearing regarding 2009-2010 salaries occurred before Mr. Kenneth Starr, the special magistrate who was appointed by the public employee relations commission (PERC). The UFF and the Board of Trustees bargaining teams must file written briefs with Mr. Starr by August 30, 2010, after which he will issue his recommendations. Following that, the Board of Trustees will conduct a hearing regarding the impasse. And then the UCF Board of Trustees will decide whether you get a raise or not.

At the hearing, your UFF representative and witness argued that members of the bargaining unit (faculty and professional staff) should receive the $1,500 one-time bonus being provided to all other UCF employees. UFF also argued that members of the bargaining unit should get a 1% across the board increase, as provided to all other employees covered by collective bargaining agreements. UFF also argued that these modest but important raises should be provided to everyone in the UFF bargaining unit.

The Board of Trustees bargaining team representative and witnesses argued that the 1% raise pool should be used to fund merit raises rather than across the board raises and did not mention the $1,500 bonus in testimony. The BOT team argued that Contracts and Grants employees should not be guaranteed the increases provided to Education and General funded employees. The BOT team offered two impasse proposals (one including raises and one not) and spent most of their time talking about discretionary issues that cannot be decided through impasse, such as administrative discretion increases (ADI). The primary BOT bargaining team witness testified that UCF faculty members have such stable jobs that salary increases are less important for them than for employees in “business” and therefore the University focuses more on the occasional large discretionary increase that might keep a “star” faculty member from going somewhere else.

The BOT team’s chief negotiator acknowledged that ADI cannot be imposed, but continued to threaten to withhold faculty raises unless UFF accedes to its demand to allow ADI. UFF believes that this threat is unlawful and will take legal action on this front. Moreover, UFF believes it is fundamentally wrong for the BOT team to treat its faculty and professional staff as pawns by threatening to withhold offered raises unless it gets the waivers that it wants.

UFF continues to hope that the BOT team will reconsider its position and either offer a clean salary proposal that does not tie salary increases to ADI or that it will agree to restore faculty rights to fair evaluation procedures as previously bargained in exchange for permission to offer ADI.

Your UFF bargaining team will continue to keep you updated on impasse and on negotiations for the 2010-2013 collective bargaining agreement.

In solidarity,

Jim Gilkeson,

Chief Negotiator
UFF-UCF

View original article at usf-uff.org.