A long somewhat productive day, with some new members in attendance, from all three campuses. We were told we will now receive a comprehensive compensation proposal next week, which will make it easier for us to make formal responses to the benefits proposal. We resolved the grievance article to our satisfaction, and received management's counter proposals on the Appointment and the Performance Review articles. We had been asked for clarification of our proposal trying to nail down EAP standards (which is how a unit picks whom to lay off or recall), which we provided. I will discuss each in more detail below:
Greivance Timing and Attendance+/-
You may recall that we had received a proposal that would limit the number of LEO members attending a grievance hearing (while not placing the same limits on the other side). There was also some technical changes attempting to bifurcate the time line for the Step One discussion versus the Step Two formal grievance filing. After informal discussion with grievance folks from the three campuses on both LEO and HR side, we agreed that the old timeline of sixty days from reasonable knowledge to formal filing had worked well enough in the past, but to add some language making it clear that any resolution on the unit level is to be encouraged, as long as it does not violate the contract. Certainly we prefer for folks to work out their issues in conversation rather than go to grievance.
Appointments and Job Security+/-
Management has accepted the proposal that spring-summer teaching will count as time towards major review, under certain circumstances. They continue to reject any notion of job security for adjuncts (folks who are also in administrative positions and do some teaching) and intermitttents, once again citing their need for flexibility. They also rejected our proposal of a continuing appointment after the 2nd major review. Instead they envision a five year appointment with a checking in review at the end ? E and Es, annual reports, and syllabi at a minimum. However, once again looking for flexibility, they also want to allow units to continue to conduct major reviews ad infinitum, or single out individual lecturers for a more extensive review, in case of concerns about that person's performance. This strikes us as even less job security than that provided by the current major review. In either case, if a lecturer failed the review, there would be mandatory remediation and a re-review. We have asked for some more parameters on this one and been promised them for next Friday.
The biggest sticking point is probably the L1s. Once again the trouble is their 'need for flexibility' versus our desire for more job security for this exposed group. They don't want to commit to one year appointments for L1s even when they anticipate work for both terms until year 4 (worried that it would lead to too many grievances about whether a unit did or did not anticipate what happened), nor do they want to shift the interim review to semester four, since they feel they need two full year's of information. (We had proposed the interim review in semester 4, leading to a two-year appointment or two one-year appointments, plus a modest salary bump).
Performace Evaluations+/-
Some of the issues here have already been discussed above in the Appointments section. Other issues are familiar issues from the last negotiation: we want annual reports to be brief (and not onerous) and we want units to respond to them in writing if they are going to require them. Both proposals were rejected. We would like to open the door to publications and community service, etc. to be considered in a major review (i.e. be a plus factor only - not a minus if you don't do it), and they say no, they just want to evaluate us on our teaching and assigned other duties.
We will be meeting in small group on Wednesday afternoon to talk International lecturers and modified duties (more flexibility for newparents)
This week we're in Dearborn, Friday March 19, 2010, University Center, Kochoff Hall A, B, and C, 9:30- 5:30. And don't forget the membership meetings on each campus this week. See you there!
Solidarity,
Kirsten Herold
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