Contents:
1. 150+ PSU-AAUP Members Rocked Bargaining Yesterday!
2. PSU Admin Backs off Unprecedented - Possibly Unlawful - Suspension of Travel
Funds During Bargaining
3. PSU Admin Bargaining "Offer" - Backward on Pay, Job Security and Contract
Protections while OU, OSU and OIT go Forward
4. Membership Meeting with Lil Taiz, Noon - 1:30, Weds, Oct. 16th, SMSU 328
Welcome Back!!!
1. More than 150 PSU-AAUP members in red t-shirts, lanyards and buttons
pushed back on PSU Admin at bargaining yesterday!
The Administration bargaining team showed up 75 minutes late to bargaining, evidently having to compose themselves in the face of OAA halls packed with PSU-AAUP members calling for a fair contract, job security and contract protection for Faculty Senate processes for evaluation, promotion and tenure.
They threatened to cancel bargaining if we didn't end the "fire hazard" and "work disturbance" of the presence of PSU faculty, whom they'd love to believe aren't really concerned about low pay, weak job security, peculiar priorities or potential administrative re-writing of P & T, evaluation and post-tenure review guidelines.
We know that many of you had conflicts and couldn't come, or didn't hear the call to come out as the event came together so quickly. Don't worry, our new Face-2-Face Network will do our best to keep you posted about future events! If you can help by spreading the word to your friends and colleagues, please contact STAND.FOR.THE.REAL.PSU@gmail.com.
2. Challenged at the Table, PSU Admin Backs Off Travel Fund Suspension
In an absolutely unprecedented and possibly unlawful move, the PSU Admin suspended the travel fund processes this fall, claiming that
a. the travel fund couldn't operate until we had a contract, and
b. this has been regular practice in the past.
We extended the contract until Nov. 30th, because the Administration is never ready to talk $$ until October. Contract extension means that the old contract is in force. For example, health coverage is in place, on the terms of the old contract.
Suspending the completely inadequate Travel Fund shows a reckless disregard for PSU faculty members' professional careers.
Despite the flat assertion at the table that suspension of the travel fund is usual practice, two previous Chairs of the Faculty Development Committee disagree:
"To the best of my recollection, the submission and review process for travel (and Faculty Enhancement) grants was never "suspended" during my tenure as chair of the FDC, even during periods of funding uncertainty." - Steve Bleiler, Chair, PSU Dept. of Math & Statistics
"During my tenure as member and later chair of the FDC, funding was never interrupted due to bargaining." - Leopoldo Rodriguez, Assoc. Prof, Int'l Studies
3. PSU Admin Proposes We Go Backward on All Fronts
After the PSU-AAUP Bargaining Team presented proposals patterned on the new contract at UO, the PSU Administration presented their package "offer" for PSU faculty to lose ground on all fronts.
UO Contract: 6% raise each year of this biennium, to move toward comparators
PSU Admin "Offer:" 1% raise each year, in the context of
a) inflation that's been 2.5% for the past two years in Portland,
b) wages that are STILL dead last among comparators, according to the OUS 2012
Factbook, and
c) loss of income in retirement due to the "Grand Bargain."
UO Contract: Multi-year contracts for all Fixed Term Faculty with 4 years
seniority
PSU Admin "Offer:" Contracts with no renewal date, notice of layoff shorter than
we have now for most FTF
UO Contract: All Evaluation, Promotion & Tenure Guidelines Enforced by
Contract - 6 pages on P & T alone
PSU Admin "Offer:" Strip out Pages of Contract Language - to be replaced by
1 Paragraph on P & T, Nothing on Post-Tenure Review
UO Contract: Paid Parental Leave for Teaching Faculty
PSU Admin "Offer:" "We're not interested."
4. If you're interested in pushing PSU to be what it should be, please join us for our Membership Meeting, with Lil Taiz, Weds., Noon to 1:30, SMSU 328
California Faculty Association (CFA) has successfully raised standards in the Cal State system AND passed a tax increase geared toward public higher ed.
Please join us for a short presentation and Q & A with CFA President, Lil Taiz. Also, a Bargaining Update from PSU-AAUP VP for Collective Bargaining, Ron Narode, and Plans for our Next Bargaining Event. Lunch Provided.
Best!
Mary King, President, PSU-AAUP