This week, in five separate meetings, PSU-AAUP members met with University Administration to discuss their Step 1 Grievance against Administration regarding the notice of layoffs sent on October 15th. From the outset, Administration has treated this grievance process and engaged with PSU-AAUP in an adversarial manner. First, PSU-AAUP requested to have one grievance meeting for all grievants, since each member experienced the same contractual violations and sought the same remedy. Administration denied this request, asserting that five separate meetings should be scheduled, one with each college where grievances were filed: CLAS, COTA, COE, CUPA, and University Studies.
During these meetings members and PSU-AAUP representatives asked questions of the Deans, and shared their stories about the meaningfulness of their work, their desire to perform their jobs with dignity, their dedication to the University, their concern for student welfare, and the utter despair they feel by the University’s actions to notice them for layoff when no programmatic changes have been made. However, Administration said nothing. They did not answer questions, and did not respond with any new information that might shed light on the notice of the layoff situation. This is a change from past practices in grievance meetings, where Administration and PSU-AAUP can come together to troubleshoot, discover more information, and attempt to come to resolution of disputes.
The next step in this grievance process is as follows (found on page 80 of the collective bargaining agreement):
- Administration must respond with a decision in writing to the grievants within ten working days of the grievance meetings.
- If PSU-AAUP is not satisfied with Administration’s decision, we have 10 days to file a request for review with the Provost, at which point another grievance meeting will be scheduled between PSU-AAUP and Administration. This is step 2 of the grievance process.
- Should the decision from the Provost be unsatisfactory, the grievance moves to step 3– filing with the University President’s Office.
- If no resolution is made in step 3, PSU-AAUP may submit the matter to arbitration.
We are closely watching what happens today. Members who receive termination letters on December 13th, may also file separate grievances for these termination letters. If you have any questions about these processes, please send them to aaup@psuaaup.net.