July 23 Update

HERE IS THE REPORT FROM THE TABLE TEAM ABOUT NEGOTIATIONS ON JULY 23

Today we came to the bargaining table prepared to hear a financial presentation from David Moore, one of the administration’s bargaining team members and VP of Finance and Administration. Given that we have been waiting 267 days since we first proposed articles on Compensation and Benefits, we were keenly anticipating this presentation, which would have been the administration’s first response to these proposals. However, when the administration arrived at the bargaining session, they insisted on prioritizing two counter proposals, Grievance Procedures and Discipline, before moving on to the financial presentation. These are two important articles because they establish our collective ability to enforce the rights laid out in the rest of the contract and specify protections for faculty around disciplinary actions. Therefore, we carefully reviewed these two articles and discussed our questions with the administration. After consulting with our AFT/AAUP chief negotiator, we determined that further analysis was needed before reaching any agreements on the counterproposals. As a result, we did not have sufficient time for the financial presentation today. However, we anticipate working through these promptly at the beginning of next week’s session. Although the administration has not been willing to schedule full day sessions which would allow more progress to be made each day of bargaining, we do have bargaining dates scheduled in each of the next two weeks, and we look forward to moving on to the financial details of our contract soon.

Several UAOU members joined us for the day and participated in our caucus discussions. Their questions, insights, and perspectives strengthened our work at the table. We know that we will win with the strong support of faculty, students, and the community. We encourage more members to join us at the next session, your presence and participation make a real difference.

Our next scheduled negotiating dates are July 31 12 pm - 5 pm and August 6 from 11 am - 5 pm.  RSVP to join us at our next faculty work-in at https://www.uaou.org/july-work-in

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