May 13 Update

HERE IS THE REPORT FROM THE TABLE TEAM ABOUT NEGOTIATIONS ON MAY 13

Today’s bargaining session started late at 1:17 because the Administration’s chief negotiator was late arriving from Columbus.

After being told in the last session that bargaining during the summer would need to be relocated away from Baker Center to The Ridges (Building 19), we started this session by suggesting we meet in available conference rooms more centrally located on the main campus, as well as suggested meeting full days or meeting more half days. Later in the session they informed us that they would not meet with us on the main campus until Baker Center was available; and once again, they refused our requests as to meeting places and frequency. This response is disappointing given that it has now been well over a year since our union election and almost a year since contract negotiations began. 

Nonetheless, we managed to productively discuss five articles. First, we exchanged counterproposals on Union Rights, which we originally proposed on August 27, 2025 (that we finally received a counterproposal on in our previous session, April 29). We are getting close to agreement on the terms by which UAOU can buy out faculty time for those members performing high service loads for the union. We also received a Management Rights counter. We gave them a counterproposal on Promotion Appeals.

The administration team gave us a package of five proposals to be considered as a group. We declined to sign off just yet because, while we are close to agreement on some, others need further consideration. Of the five, we are very close to signing off on the articles on Nondiscrimination and Dues Deduction and hope to do so at the next meeting.

Administration team member David Moore, VP for Finance & Administration, was not present at today’s bargaining session and there is still no word on when we will receive a response on our Compensation proposal, presented to them on October 20, 2025, 197 days ago.  We have also yet to receive any response on our Appointments and Renewals article, one that would create increased protections for Instructional Faculty.

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