Bargaining Update: Lecturer I's not "flexible" enough for Administration

February 12, 2010

After getting all the proposals on the table in the last three weeks, we are now transitioning from presentation mode to actual negotiation.

We spent the day talking about performance reviews and management's "need for flexibility" with LI appointments. While they have not rejected any of our proposals outright, they argued that the combined impact of our proposals "longer appointments, earlier notice dates, and late lay-off penalties for Lecturer Is" would have a chilling impact on their ability to staff courses and would lead to layoffs in April.

Our answer is that Lecturer Is are more than half of the bargaining unit, which is a lot of flexibility; that they generally know what enrollment patterns look like; and that if they should get it wrong, the impact is so much greater on a member already living close to the margins than it would be for a department to pay out 17% of the cost of the course in a late cancellation fee. We expect to resume discussion on the Union's salary proposal next week around 10 a.m.

We also set up time to discuss a number of proposals in a small group setting. These include the Senior Lecturer Proposal (which they have indicated they are interested in), technical stuff about pay schedules, parental leaves, and international lecturers. We hope that the conversation in small groups will enable us to utilize more of a problem-solving, interest-based approach to the issues.

As always members are welcome to join us on Fridays in our beautiful space: the Education Conference Center at the School of Social Work, corner of East and South U. We are deeply gratified for the number of members who have already attended bargaining, and hope to see everyone there before it is over.

Sincerely, Kirsten Herold
LEO VP

See the sidebar for negotiation times and locations!