PSU-AAUP Mediation Update

Highlights
Despite over 140 hours at the bargaining table, being just 7 days from the earliest date impasse could be called, and bargaining extending until 9pm last night, Administration still has not negotiated the conditions faculty, staff, and students deserve. Specifically, the administration refuses to move on layoff protections, COLA, bilingual pay, Post-Tenure Review (PTR), Post-Continuous Appointment Review (PCAR), and AP advancement. 

Once bargaining concludes, we’re locked into “labor peace” until 2028. That means our ability to use everything- including a potential strike- to push back against layoffs and win the conditions that retain our talented coworkers and students is much more limited. Whether or not we change the Cudd administration’s stated planned two additional years of layoffs and the conditions we all deserve depends on how much each one of us shows up right now.

To create additional bargaining power, PSU-AAUP leadership is asking all members to join a 9am Friday January 24th practice picket in front of ASRC. RSVP hereand invite your coworkers, students, and community allies.  

Also, any member who’s attending the practice picket tomorrow can stop by SMSU 232 to get a PSU-AAUP hoodie sweatshirt today until 7pm (quantities are limited).   

Full mediation recap
The day started with the administration offering a package proposal that sought to bring closure to the non-economic matters that are still on the table. The proposal included responses on bridge funding, conference funding, AP vacation time, campus closure, remote work, respectful workplace and workload. While we found the bridge and conference funding pieces agreeable, the package did not contain the amount of movement on the other topics that we felt were necessary. For example, they proposed requiring members to use vacation time to cover absences due to a campus closure for extreme weather or other hazardous conditions. 

We countered with a package proposal that kept the bridge funding and conference funding sections as well as the agreed-upon remote work section, and added a counter-offer on campus closure. We also dropped our asks for changes to AP vacation accruals and the addition of respectful and courteous workplace. Note that we were only willing to drop the AP vacation proposal if our members wouldn’t be required to use vacation time to cover absences due to campus closures. 

We also offered a proposal on economics, which kept our initial proposed increases to PCAR, PTR, IPDA and targeted market adjustments, but dropped our ask for annual CPI increases to those funds.

The administration team later responded with a package proposal on some of the language pieces. We felt their offer represented the best we could achieve under the circumstances. The tentative agreement includes the funding for the Research Bridge fund and the Conference fund, and new language on campus closure that will result in more consistency, especially when it comes to the remote/in-person aspect. We also agreed to withdraw our proposal on increased vacation and respectful workplace. 

The administrative team then gave us a package proposal on economics and layoff. The layoff piece did not include any advance notice or severance for Article 22 layoffs, and made improvements to the recall language that did not meet our members’ needs. The recall language as it stands makes it highly unlikely that a recall would ever occur in the first place (it requires administration to reverse the decision that led to the layoff), so the improvements they offered were not nearly significant enough to meet our interests. 

A draft MOA was also part of the package, offering severance for the 17 NTTF who were recently laid off, but it would also require the a laid of members to release PSU from all liability, including the right to file a grievance on the layoff. They offered one-time payments of $5,000 to those who had less than 5 years of service, $10,000 for those with at least 5 years and no more than 10 years, and $20,000 for those with 10 or more years of service. The MOA also proposed the idea of scholarship funds to substitute for the staff fee privilege.  

Finally, there was an economic section where administration offered a COLA of 2.85% in year 1, which is a .25% increase from their previous offer, and for the next three years a COLA based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) that would be no lower than 1.75% and 3.5%. That said, it would amount to less than $1,500 a year more for our lowest paid members. Admin’s package included modest increases to Targeted Market Increases (TMI) and Compression, Inversion & Equity (CIE) amounts and they offered to increase the AP advancement from $1,600 over four years to $1,260 over three years. Finally, they bumped up the bilingual differential from $500 per year to $1,500, which was significant movement, but represents a rate of about 2.75% for APs, well below the typical rate 5% seen in other labor contracts. 

We finished the day by sending the administration a counter-offer that focused on the importance of improved layoff protections. We also made some movement that got us closer on the PTR and PCAR finding levels. 

While this is our last scheduled mediation session, the parties agreed to meet early next week to continue bargaining, in an effort to reach agreement before January 30, which is the earliest date at which either side could call for impasse. 

Again, PSU-AAUP leadership is asking all members to join a practice picket tomorrow, 9am Friday, January 24th, in front of ASRC to create additional bargaining power to win the conditions we deserve and stop the layoffs. RSVP here and invite your coworkers, students, and community allies.