October 10th PSU-AAUP bargaining update
Total members 103, in person 27, online 76
Researchers turn out and see significant movement on bridge funding
Due to the number of members -including many researchers- who attended the previous session, we made significant movement on bridge funding to address researcher job instability. This followed members speaking out in the Board of Trustees, 8 Portland City Council Candidates publicly expressing their solidarity, and members speaking out in Portland City Council today also contributed to this movement. The administration team was in general agreement with the PSU-AAUP team’s “trial balloon,” which called for departments to provide matching funds for amounts that researchers get from a central PSU fund (trial balloons are interest based bargaining tactic that combines several options to try to meet the interests of both administration and union members). However, the administration team expressed concern about the departmental matching funds. This will be back on the table today. Let’s all help make sure our fixed-term researcher colleagues win as much job stability as possible by attending RMNC 316 between 8:30am and 1:30pm.
Layoff protections
There are many layoff protections at stake in these negotiations: tuition remission for our kids, healthcare, and recall list where laid-off colleagues get called back for any PSU position we’re qualified for (not just our specific job title as administration prefers) to name a few. We’ve seen the administration’s strategy: trying to push through $12.5 million in salary reduction before these protections are finalized when our new contract is ratified. Simultaneously, administration has been claiming to work with our union on layoff protections in a budget town hall that didn’t paint an accurate picture of PSU’s financial health per higher education finance expert Howard Bunsis. With many NTTF faculty being made aware of layoff notices coming Tuesday, October, 15, you and your departmental colleagues can help expedite winning layoff protections and finalizing our contract by showing up with signs speaking out about the impacts of cuts at bargaining today in RMNC 316 between 8:30am and 1:30pm.
Following the Board of Trustees and City Council speakouts, Administration’s team has expressed an interest in some of the topics but so far only in a memorandum of agreement (MOA) that would sunset sometime in the near future, rather than becoming contract language. While the length of such an MOA has not been discussed, it likely wouldn’t last more than a year.
As the administration has signaled they’d like to enact three years of budget cuts, it is better to get language into the contract, as opposed to a short-lived MOA. Today’s topics were discussed within the context of whether they would be in an MOA or the contract.
Tuition remission for children of laid-off members
The first layoff-related topic was the tuition benefit. In the last session, the administration floated the idea of making scholarships available to laid-off employees, in lieu of the usual process. While this idea is still on the table, administration is concerned about the fact that they don’t know how many people will take advantage of it, and so the potential cost is unknown.
We moved on to alternative job placement benefits for laid-off workers. The main components of the conceptual agreement call for 1) job placement service when 10 or more employees are laid off 2) the employee can request a meeting with HR to discuss other PSU jobs they may be suited for 3) an option for employees to sign up for automated job alerts and 4) that those on recall are eligible for the internal hiring process.
Teams discussed adding a requirement that OAA and/or HR would be required to contact laid-off members with details and resources about alternative placement and other job resources.
At this point, we had a discussion about the cost of the layoff benefits, which would likely appear in an MOA. The administration team is reluctant to commit any money to cover things like the tuition scholarships until we reach the “economic summit” portion of interest based bargaining. The union team was confused because there is one-time money available from HECC (Higher Education Coordinating Committee) that can be used to cover these costs. The administration team seems willing to commit to spending some of the HECC money now on things like the retirement incentive we are working on, but want to wait on other spending possibilities, like severance benefits.
The union team reminded the administration team that we are very close to agreement on tuition scholarships, and is frustrated that the concern over the HECC money is preventing us from reaching closure. The union believes work on the MOA shouldn’t interfere with reaching agreement on bargaining issues because the cost created by the MOA would draw from the HECC money, rather than PSU funds.
Recall rights for laid-off employees
We then moved on to recall rights for laid-off members. We first took on how recall would apply to APs. Currently, a laid-off member can only be recalled if PSU brings their exact position back. This is very unlikely, so it is an extremely rare occurrence for members to get recalled. The union has an interest in expanding the recall rights of laid-off employees, so it would be more probable that they would get recalled. Ideally, a recalled employee would have the right of first refusal for openings that are substantially similar to the job they lost. Language of this type shows up in many public sector union contracts, including those at OHSU, Multnomah County, and City of Portland.
The administration team was opposed to the idea of automatically recalling an employee to a job that is similar to the job they lost. After a lot of back and forth, the parties considered an idea that would have employees on the recall list permitted to apply for job openings along with internal candidates, and if a candidate meets both the minimum and preferred qualifications, they would be given the job, without there being an external recruitment. The successful applicant would be subject to a 90-day trial service period, and if they are satisfactory in that period then they are permanently in the position.
While this potential resolution is not as strong as the union would like, we felt it was progress. Both parties were more or less in agreement with this, but the administration team balked when the union stated the need to have this language put into the contract rather than in a short-term MOA. The administration team said they would consider the CBA/MOA issue and get back to us in a future session.
The teams then turned to recall rights for NTTF, but the day ended before much progress could be made.
Our plan to fight back against NTTF cuts
We know the implications of admin’s delay strategy in bargaining and have a stark choice in this decisive moment in PSU’s history: we can all show up today 1,200 strong and expedite as many layoff protections as quickly as possible or we can leave the administration to send notice of layoffs to many of our NTTF colleagues Tuesday. Either way, we’re sending the administration a message. Several NTTF faculty leaders were making calls and sending texts and emails to boost turnout from bargaining today. Join them, rally your colleagues, come get a brand new member-designed PSU-AAUP t-shirt, and let’s show admin the strength of our solidarity in RMNC 316 between 8:30am and 1:30 pm.
Additionally, faculty and staff who perform uncompensated racialized labor will be speaking out to win bi-lingual pay similar to what other local higher-ed institutions and local employers offer. Paid leave, remote work, researcher bridge funding, and parking are scheduled to be negotiated today as well. |
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