#faculty association

[doctorqueer]

RAW FOOTAGE! November 7 Student Rally and March in support of faculty on strike.

[doctorqueer]

HELP END OUR STRIKE!

UNION BUSTING IS DISGUSTING!!

What can you do to help END the SIUC strike?!

  Call upon the administration to stop misrepresenting faculty concerns and to negotiate a fair contract:

Call Board of trustees 618-536-3357;

Chancellor Cheng 618-453-2341;

President Poshard 618-536-3331.

You can also sign a petition supporting tenure through transparent definitions of financial exigency at:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savetenureatsiucarbondale/

*Please sign the petition and know that the donation request IS NOT mandatory to have your signature cast*

This is petition for Support for Faculty at SIU Carbondale. Join the movement! Sign now!

[doctorqueer]

ANGRY AS HELL! And hurt.

It hurts me to see what is taking place at this place I have come to call home: Southern Illinois University, Carbondale!

This administration appears to be working strategically to dismantle the Faculty Association by pinning the other three unions (Graduate Assistants United; Non-Tenture Track Faculty Association; & Association of Civil Service Employees) against the FA with respective tentative agreements. That is, it seems like Chancellor Cheng (administration) is working hard to extend an agreement with the 3 non-FA unions in order to force us to return to work tomorrow while the FA is left to fend for itself.

If my union (Graduate Assistants United) reaches tentative agreement tonight/this morning, I will return to work at 8am and teach as scheduled--there are no sympathy striking protections in Illinois. However, thereafter, I am back to the picket line in solidarity. I will run the thin line between being a student and being a graduate assistant/facilitator supporting my own faculty--the reason I came to this institution for my PhD.

What concerns me, also, is the University's facebook page surveillance. Any individual who posts on the wall that they desire a settlement to take place; for Chancellor Cheng to respond to questions; or any form of general criticism or dissent, will be deleted from the page and barred from future postings. It is really quite sad. The reason for this action: to ensure that student readers do not believe--even for a moment--that there are others who are equally angry that the administration has failed the University. This is the work of solidarity. The University is worried about mass dissent.

Our work now is to stand in solidarity with one another. With our Faculty Association. With each of the unions no matter the outcome. Indeed, if no one gets an agreement, then we all stand in solidarity with one another. Students with faculty and faculty with student. We must all stand together to topple this monstrous practice of resistance and general union busting.

For right now, I am saddened that it has gone this far at all.

[cmlife-blog]

Fact-finder favors CMU in Faculty Association salaries, benefits

A state fact-finder is supporting administration proposals on salaries and health care benefits in its negotiations with the Faculty Association.

Fact-finder Barry Goldman’s non-binding set of findings came Tuesday in an attempt to break an impasse in the four-month old contract talks, in which mediation already has failed.

In findings for CMU’s proposed zero-percent salary increase for 2011-12 and small increases in years two and three, Goldman dismissed FA’s contention that CMU has $228 million in unrestricted net assets that could be used to fund more generous raises.

“The CMU proposal of a zero increase in the first year and modest increases in subsequent years is not an unreasonable offer, all things considered. Circumstances (in the Michigan economy) are bad and getting worse. It would be extremely unwise for CMU to eat its seed corn,” Goldman said of the union’s contention.

He also called CMU’s position on maintaining all employees on a less expensive heath care insurance plan “eminently fair,” saying that if FA members want the more expensive MESSA plan, its members alone should pay the difference.

Further, Goldman said FA’s proposal to give 12-month faculty a $600 signing bonus once the contract is resolved might be illegal.

“Laudable as that goal may be, there is some question whether the proposed bonus would violate Public Act 54’s prohibition against retroactive benefit increases,” he said. “I find the record before me does not justify the bonus.”

Regarding retirement, the fact-finder sided with the FA and rejected CMU’s proposal for retirement contribution for those on a 10-percent plan to be based on base salary only.

“I do not see any compelling reason for the change to contributions calculated on base salary only,” he said. “The fact that the University could save the money is not sufficient to justify eliminating an existing, bargained-for benefit.”

The fact-finder agreed with CMU’s argument to eliminate language regarding payments to faculty members attaining terminal degrees.

Goldman agreed with the FA’s promotion increment argument that CMU’s proposal to roll back amounts to pre-2006-07 levels and allow the increments to rise back to 2010-11 levels over the next two years would penalize those who obtained promotions in 2011 and 2012. The loss to base would compound those faculty members for the rest of their careers, according to the FA’s argument.

“Perhaps, as the university argues, the promotion increments currently in place are more generous than "market."

But I am going to assume that those increments were bargained into existence by competent negotiators acting in good faith,” he said. “The record before me does not show sufficient grounds to roll them back.” Goldman recommended the faculty members are required no more than one annual meeting with each non-tenured faculty member.

He agreed with CMU that annual meetings with non-tenured faculty are a good idea, but he also agreed with the FA that it was “redundant and pointless” to require a faculty member to attend conferences for assistance to bargaining unit members and meetings on reappointment, tenure and promotion policies in the same year.

College deans can call meetings with faculty members whenever necessary.

He recommended current contract language on salary adjustment and reappointment applications.

“I see no compelling reason on this record either to extend the period before a faculty member can apply for a salary adjustment or to reduce the number of reappointment applications required before a tenure application would be required,” he said.

Goldman recommended a blending of the CMU and FA proposals on tuition remission.

He said he sees no compelling reason to increase the number of eligible credits or extend the program to courses taken outside of CMU, and he also sees no compelling reason the program should not apply to CMED or any other CMU program if it is capped as the FA suggests.

Goldman did not give a recommendation on recognizing coaches hired on or after July 1, 2011 or faculty who are primarily appointed to the College of Medicine or other CMU First Professional Degree programs.

He agreed with the FA’s argument that the issue of unit composition was not properly before him, and adopted Fact Finder William Long’s ruling in Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital and Michigan Nurses Association that the proposal will not be addressed in the report because both parties have not submitted the issue to the fact finder.

[cmlife-blog]

Fact finder sides with CMU admins on economic issues

By Theresa Clift University Editor 

A state fact finder’s report supports the CMU administration’s proposals on salaries and health care benefits in the negotiations with the Faculty Association.

Fact-finder Barry Goldman’s non-binding set of recommendations came Monday in an attempt to break an impasse in the contract talks, in which mediation already has failed.

Six issues remain unresolved. Goldman sided with the university on the issues of benefits and salary.

CMU proposes to pay the same amount for FA health care as all other employees and give FA members the choice to pay the difference if they choose the more expensive MESSA insurance.

CMU proposes a zero increase in salary this year and modest increases in subsequent two years.

Goldman also agreed with CMU’s proposal not to grant 12-month faculty a $600 signing bonus.

However, Goldman sided with the FA on the issue of retirement, which proposed to keep the current contract language.

On the issues of tuition remission, salary adjustments for promotion and completion of appropriate terminal degrees, Goldman recommended a combination of both proposals, or declined to give recommendations.

The FA went on strike after its contract expired June 30.

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