Inside Higher ED
October 9, 2015
Collective bargaining negotiations are often drawn out and contentious, but the process now unfolding within the Connecticut State University system promises to be particularly unpleasant, based on an administrative wish list that includes unprecedented proposals -- such as that tenured faculty members may be assigned involuntarily to another campus, without the guarantee of continued tenure there.
Leaders of the American Association of University Professors-affiliated union representing faculty members at the state's four regional universities are keeping their public comments to a minimum, but they’ve warned union members that the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities Board of Regents for Higher Education's starting point for negotiations is worrisome at best.
“It is to be expected in such negotiations that the two sides will have very different starting points, but the [board] proposals contain truly drastic alterations to our work conditions,” the state university-wide union’s collective bargaining team wrote in an email update this month, after the first negotiation meeting regarding the 2016-19 contract. “Understand that these are starting points intended to be negotiated; nevertheless, you may find the [board] proposals alarming.”