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8/30/07 Negotiations Update from the Union

Aug 30, 2007

This morning the University’s Office of Human Resources sent out a negotiations update email that is a distortion of what happened yesterday at the negotiating table.

In an effort to achieve a settlement and get things moving our Union Negotiating Team put the following wage proposal on the table:

3.5% - first payroll period of FY 07
3.5% - first payroll period of FY 08

1% - January 08 – timed with health insurance increases
1% - January 08 – timed with health insurance increases

The Mediators asked us if a lump sum payment for those at the top of their pay scales would settle the contract. Our Team said “No.” We want increases that are on our base salary. Lump sums are a one-time payment that does nothing to affect our standard of living over the long haul. The only lump sum offer that was on the table was $50 in the first and second years of the contract. The only movement University Negotiators made yesterday was to formally take that $50 off the negotiating table.

The University gets to its figure of 13% (the U’s description of our wage proposal) by rolling steps into the general wage adjustment. We reject folding our step increases into the general wage adjustment. Our step increases represent the salary scale for our jobs. They are longevity increases. They are not cost of living increases. The University has been trying to eliminate our steps for years. This current method is just a back-door approach to accomplishing that.

This is the truth. We ask you to share it with all of your co-workers, faculty and staff. The University administration continues to show its disrespect for our Union by broadcasting emails that distort the facts, in an effort to sow doubt and confusion among clerical, technical and healthcare workers and those who would support us in the workplace.

Your Negotiating Committee, which is made up of your co-workers, is committed to getting a fair deal from the University’s Administration. Every one of us has a stake in this. It’s an economic and moral obligation to be on the picket line if a strike is called. It takes courage to initiate change. That’s what our strike is about. Everyone deserves to make economic progress.