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Bargaining Council Elected As all faculty no doubt remember, during negotiations for our current three year contract the Union agreed to have a re-opener on salary for the third year of our Contract. The justification for this was the uncertain state of Ohio’s budget and its unknown impact upon CSU’s budget. Unfortunately Ohio’s budget for 2005-2006 is still unsettled (see following article), but it is time to prepare for negotiations. So the Executive Committee appointed a Nominating Committee, which conducted elections for the Bargaining Council. The Council consists of one member elected by the CSU-AAUP members in each of the Colleges, five members elected at large, and the elected members of the Executive Committee, plus the CSU-AAUP Grievance Officer. The Bargaining Council is the CSU-AAUP’s Strategy Group. It develops positions for the Negotiating Team’s use at the Bargaining Table. The process for selecting a Negotiating Team is currently underway. The newly elected members of the Bargaining Council are: Walter Rom, Business If you have views on salary issues, these are the people you should contact to make them known. Cloudy State Budget Delays Bargaining Unfortunately it is now all but certain that faculty at Cleveland State University will leave for the summer without knowing what their salary will be next year. The legislature of the state of Ohio has not yet settled on a budget for the next biennium, and it will probably not develop one until June at the earliest. Consequently, although the CSU-AAUP is preparing for negotiations, their start is on indefinite hold. We agreed to a re-opener because we hoped an improving state budget picture would enable us to negotiate higher salary increases than in the first two years of the Contract. Although it now appears that little if any new money will be dedicated to higher education by the state, negotiations await a final determination. It does not take a psychic to foretell that whatever the state of Ohio provides for higher education, it will not be enough to fund our enterprise adequately. It never is. Until Ohio realizes that decently funded institutions of higher education are essential to its future, our state will continue its plunge toward the bottom of the fifty states in economic development and quality of life. Health Care Costs Rise Modestly—Benefits Maintained For the first time in many years Health Care coverage will not change next year. In previous years a Contract provision required that all increases in health care premiums be split fifty-fifty between the Administration and CSU employees. That provision forced us to agree yearly to changes in our health care plans to avoid prohibitively high increases in monthly payments for faculty and other employees. Those changes always cost employees money, though not nearly as much as accepting the fifty-fifty split would have.
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In the last round of negotiations, the united unions at CSU and the administration agreed to jettison that invidious Contract provision. Now the university pays a fixed percentage of the premium for each type of health insurance (varying for the different plans), and employees pay a fixed percentage. As a result significant changes in health care are likely to occur, if at all, only as part of the regular three year contract renegotiations. Health care will no doubt continue to increase annually until our government fixes our broken health care system, but the increases for employees at CSU are now less likely be exorbitant. The thanks for this improvement in our Contract go to many people--the representatives from the various unions and other faculty and staff organizations who serve on the Health Care Committee, the Unity Council (founded by Rodger Govea), which helped the unions find common ground on health care, and Joe Nolan and Lynn Anderson, who persuaded the Administration to adopt a reasonable cost sharing clause on health care. Grievance Report We are happy to report that, after a three-year odyssey, a junior faculty member originally denied tenure has been promoted and tenured. The AAUP and the Administration had agreed that irregularities had contaminated the original review, and called for a fresh review of the case. The new review resulted in positive recommendations for the candidate. Many professors gave generously of their time to conduct the new review. The review called for the participation of faculty outside the department in question, and a review by an ad hoc chair. We were able to find good faculty to fill all these positions, and they deserve our thanks. Our continuing problems with sick leave took an unexpected turn this year. One chair was charging sick leave to faculty members for classes they had missed, even though they had designated substitutes for the sessions and had not actually been sick. This particular practice has apparently been discontinued prior to the formal grievance process. There remains a case in which sick hours have been deducted, but in an apparently excessive amount. Lesson: keep an occasional eye out on your pay stub to make sure that you have all the sick leave to which you are entitled. There were a few cases about class assignment and scheduling, none of which has yet to result in a grievance, but are serious nonetheless. Some have involved the specific times at which classes were offered, about which the Contract has no specific provisions, and others have involved assignment in areas beyond the expertise of the faculty member. A number of problems were solved outside the grievance process. As always, the bulk of my time was spent advising faculty on various problems, whether or not they were contractual. Remember, if you have any questions regarding any matter at the university, you can call me at X4554. If your problem requires a grievance, I will be happy to file on your behalf. If it is not a grievable situation, you can still ask for help in solving the problem. |