FACULTY TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATIONS
(which will be the basis for the faculty's collective bargaining
proposals)
Negotiations for the new Board of Trustees-UFF Collective Bargaining Agreement will presumably take as the starting point the current BOR-UFF Collective Bargaining Agreement--that is, if tradition holds (and the trustees and the union want to finish bargaining before the beginning of the next millennium). Traditionally, as a matter of important continuity, a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) evolves over many years by literally adding or subtracting specific language (and provisions) from the previous versions, utilizing historical experience and the lessons of past practice.
As a consequence of this evolutionary process of accretion and deletion, which has had to respond over the years to many disparate political and tactical circumstances, Collective Bargaining Contracts are not always organized in a manner that most faculty would consider logical, or at least user-friendly. While the previous contract negotiators no doubt sought to proceed as logically as possible, in our Contract from the old State University System, as in most, consecutively numbered Articles do not always deal with similar issues, and congruent categories are not necessarily grouped together. Often, issues with similar themes might actually show up in several different Articles of the Contract. The various Task Forces, consequently, sometimes found their focuses overlapping across Articles.
In an effort to present the contents of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (and the Faculty Task Force Recommendations) in a more accessible fashion, we have grouped the Articles and their various provisions thematically into four general categories (reflecting no particular priority ): “Traditional Faculty Rights, ”“ Salaries & Fringe Benefits, ”“ Due Process & Procedural Protections, ” and “ Rights of Representation and Technical Matters.” The recommendations for new provisions in the Articles dealing with “ Traditional Faculty Rights ” involved four separate Task Forces, which worked cooperatively, as needed. The recommendations for “ Salaries & Fringe Benefit ” s involved two different Task Forces. The recommendations for the Articles covering “ Due Process & Procedural Protections” involved still another combination of four separate Task Forces. Only the recommendations for the “ Rights of Representation ” Articles were the work of a single Task Force.
We have also attempted to list the Articles in each general category logically, rather than strictly chronologically. We have organized the Faculty Task Force Recommendations by Articles, even though subject matter may overlap somewhat. The recommendations for each Article are presented in the identical format:
(1) Text of the relevant segment of the current Contract; followed by
(2) Problem(s) the Task Force(s) identified with current Contract language; followed in turn by
(3) The Task Force's recommended solution(s) to those problems.
OVERVIEW SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS
Click here for Overview Summary of Recommendations
(highlights)
RECOMMENDATIONS BY CONTRACT ARTICLE
When you click on a particular Article, you will first get a very general summary of the problems in the current Article (identified by one or more Task Forces), and then a few of the key corrections or improvements that the Task Force recommends. At the end of that summary, you can click on the “SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS ” hyperlink to get much more detailed discussions of the specific problems that the Task Forces have identified in the language of that Article and the solutions they want the Faculty Bargaining Team to seek agreement on from the Board negotiators. Each set of problems and solutions is placed directly beneath the exact language of the current Contract, which is provided in short segments chronologically. Click on the appropriate Article/Subject to get the Task Force Recommendations on those issues :
GIVE THE FACULTY BARGAINING TEAM YOUR FEEDBACK
As already indicated, these Faculty Task Force Recommendations will be the explicit basis for the formal proposals that the Faculty Bargaining Team presents to the negotiators for the Board of Trustees. UFF is posting the reports/recommendations of the ten Faculty Task Forces to encourage faculty to give comments and particularly suggestions for specific improvements in one or more of any Task Force's recommendations. Please give the union your feedback! Tell the Bargaining Team what you think!
If after examining the Task Force Recommendations, you have any
comments or suggestions--any at all, especially for improvements--please
e-mail them to the Faculty Bargaining Team at
UFFBargTeam@aol.com
. The Bargaining Team
will integrate those suggestions it thinks will strengthen any Task Force
recommendations. If a suggestion is a potentially valuable one
but requires making a significant change of direction in the Task Force’s
recommendation, the Bargaining Team will relay your suggestions to the
appropriate Task Force(s) for discussion and decision. The union
has pledged that the respective Faculty Task Forces will have final approval
of the initial faculty bargaining proposal presented to the Trustees.
GENERAL CONTACT PERSON: Chris Snodgrass;
snod@english.ufl.edu