It’s been a long slog of two days at the bargaining table with Administration but the Collective Bargaining Team feels good about what we have been able to accomplish on behalf of members. Unfortunately, communications broke down this evening and we still do not have a complete economic agreement.
As you know, we scheduled a bargaining session for Thursday evening, September 28th to discuss cost-of-living adjustments. At 11pm after 6 hours of bargaining and several rounds of proposals, the AAUP team was able to meet Administration in the middle on COLAs.
We had members observing and participating in Slack the whole time! Your presence matters! Thank you!
We then continued bargaining today. After 10 hours at the table we ended without a complete economic agreement; there were massive communication breakdowns and disappointing Administrative backsliding on the caregiver support pool. Despite our assertion that caregiving issues have been at the table for over 5 months, Administration resists AAUP's proposals and continues to engage in stalling tactics.
Read on for more details about our wins and what remains ahead.
We came to the following economic agreements:
- ~$35,000 to be allocated for 1-2 years to pay for the cost of a care navigation system.
- $115,000 for a caregiver support pool for year 3 of the contract, and $175,000 in year 4.
- Retain the same rate for IPDAs - expanded uses are still being discussed but we are very close! These are being modeled from the COVID Impact MOU on IPDA uses.
- Increase AP salary minimums using a 1% pool allocated in January/February of 2023, and 0.8% pool to be used in year four of the contract for targeted market increases
- COLAs in year 4 to be tied to the CPI-U West not to be below 1.75% or above 3.5%
- Segmented COLAs in year 3 of the contract to take effect in January 2023 for 12-month employees, and February for 9-month employees. Please see our Bargaining FAQ #7 for an overview of how these segments work. In essence, the first $60,000 of every bargaining unit member’s salary gets an 8% COLA, and the remainder of the salaries have the graduated COLAs applied.
What Remains?
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Expanded uses of IPDAs.
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New AP Salary bands. Administration has agreed that this will be done no later than November 15th and a “small table” bargaining session will be scheduled for next week.
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Purposes of the caregiver support pool.
Despite Administration agreeing to AAUP’s proposed caregiver pool during our economic summit, we hit a snag. Administration insists that caregiving pool funds should only be used for “exceptional circumstances.” AAUP asserts that these funds can and should be available for work-related caregiving costs, even if those costs are ongoing. AAUP knows that caregiving affects so many AAUP members, whether those caregiving duties are for a partner, children, parents, or other loved one. AAUP also knows that our lowest paid members are disproportionately affected by the costs of caregiving, and see this pool as one way to support and uplift these members.
What can you do?
We still need to apply pressure on Administration to get this contract done. Let’s be a visible united front.
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Wear buttons and other PSU-AAUP swag!
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Post posters on your office door and on bulletin boards (check your campus mail for swag and posters!)
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Use PSU-AAUP Zoom backgrounds to make our community aware of this important contract process.
Finally, keep your eyes on your email for more bargaining updates from PSU-AAUP!
In Solidarity,
David Kinsella
VP for Collective Bargaining