March 23 Update

We started the morning by receiving and discussing the Administration team's second counter proposal on External Work and Activities. This draft more closely aligns to our discussions in previous bargaining sessions and we hope to come back with our counter proposal soon. 

We then discussed a counter proposal from the Administration titled Grievance Procedures, Mediation, and Arbitration. It was quite different from our initial proposal on this subject on Sept. 29, 2025 so we will be reviewing it further to see how we might come to an agreement at a future meeting. One major sticking point is the administration’s overly broad interpretation of what Senate Bill 1prohibits us from bargaining.

We presented a counter proposal on Nondiscrimination. After caucusing, the administration team then came back with responses on Dues Deduction and Nondiscrimination. Those present at the table will review with the whole team. 

We have come to the point in bargaining where it is difficult to make progress on some proposals because the administration still has not given us any counter proposals related to our financial priorities, despite the fact we gave them our proposals 145 days ago. However, our team is ready and willing to come back to the table again next time to continue to negotiate.

Our next scheduled negotiating date is April 1 (10:30am-5pm) at the Baker Center.

For more specific information regarding the proposals and tentative agreements, please see the proposal tracker at https://www.uaou.org/ bargaining-tracker