UNI FACULTY CALL TO ACTION MEETING
Dear Colleagues:
For over 40 years, the right to negotiate and maintain fair contracts has worked well for UNI. Through many university presidents, Boards of Regents and economic fluctuations, our contracts with the board have promoted cooperative problem solving and fairness for faculty and the administration.
Unfortunately, state lawmakers are about to introduce legislation that could cause massive degradation of our ability to bargain for and enforce contracts for our wages, benefits and conditions of employment. We would lose these rights for no reason other than we are public employees.
The loss of our contractual protections could enable current and future administrations to impose unilateral decisions about the areas listed below. Everything in parenthesis could become administrative prerogatives, subject only to managerial discretion!
Salaries
(including base, merit, promotion, summer courses)
Health Care Benefits
(health coverage, employee premiums, deductibles, out of pocket expenses, approved health care providers)
Evaluation
(student assessments, post tenure review, promotion requirements and procedures),
Work load
(3 courses versus 4 courses per semester, scholarly activity-teaching ratio, conversion to online courses)
Sick leave
(family leave and sick leave bank),
Layoff procedures
(contractual protections that prevent the type of arbitrary layoffs imposed in 2012 but later rescinded because of UF action)
Grievance procedures
(grievance steps, representation, time lines, issues able to be grieved)
Current and future administrations could gain complete autonomy to reduce salaries, cut benefits and determine layoffs. In short, the threatened loss of our contractual protections could be an economic and job security disaster for UNI faculty and our families.
The only way to succeed against this threat is for all of us to stand together. We must demonstrate, as we did in 2012, that we will fight for the future of UNI. We must let everyone know we will not be idle while forces of mediocrity seek to harm the university we love. We must remind the governor, legislature and regents that faculty working conditions are student learning conditions.
The UNI Faculty Call to Action Meeting will be a pivotal moment in the history of UNI. Ultimately, It’s success will depend on you. During the next few days, I will send additional announcements about the meeting, including our plans to help faculty voices rise up. I’ll also have information about special guests and media presence.
Lang Auditorium will seat a lot of people. Invite everyone who cares about UNI. Post it on your Facebook account and other social media. Let all of us join as one to send a powerful message on Friday, January 27th
Onward,
Joe
