Susan Hegeman

Bargaining Unit to Vote on Salary Agreement, Sept. 11-12

SUMMARY OF SALARY AGREEMENT

On Tuesday, August 27, your United Faculty of Florida (UFF) Bargaining Team and representatives of the University of Florida Board of Trustees (BOT) finalized a raise package for the roughly 1,800 members of the UFF bargaining unit. The text of the tentative agreement can be found here: Article 24_Fall 2019 (pdf).

Under this agreement, which would take effect October 1, returning faculty members would receive:

  • A 1% across-the-board raise
  • A 2% merit pool, with raises determined by departmental bylaws
  • A $325 salary supplement for 12-month faculty earning less than $67,000
  • A $200 salary supplement for 9-month faculty earning less than $55,000

 

Finally, the package allots roughly $100,000 for faculty member raises at P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School. These raise funds will be used to pay for annual and performance adjustments, with any remaining funds paid toward across-the-board raises.

All members of the bargaining unit will have an opportunity to vote YES or NO on this raise package. Under Florida law, the agreement cannot take effect unless ratified by the unit. We encourage a YES vote. You do not have to be a UFF member to vote.

WHEN AND WHERE TO VOTE

All members of the bargaining unit can vote during the following dates and times, at these locations:

  • Weds., September 11
    • 10am-2pm at Library West
    • 10am-2pm at the Reitz Union
  • Thurs., September 12
    • 10am-2pm at Library West
    • 10am-2pm at the Reitz Union

The final vote count will be held at Library West on Thurs., September 12, at 2:15 pm.

Bargaining unit members at P.K. Yonge have already been informed of their voting locations and times by their UFF representative.

WHAT YOU’RE VOTING ON

This raise package, which totals $5.5 million, breaks down as follows:

  • $1.85 million for across-the-board raises
  • $3.7 million for merit raises
  • $46,450 for salary supplements
  • $100,000 for raises at P.K. Yonge (allocated by the State, not by UF)

HOW WE GOT HERE

This raise package represents the culmination of four weeks of negotiations with the BOT. At the beginning of negotiations, the BOT team was clearly willing to consider alternative allocations of the 1% across-the-board raise funds. Unfortunately, at the last minute, they changed course.

For close to three weeks, both teams worked toward an ambitious proposal that would have directed more than $800,000 toward new salary minimums. These minimums would have affected 175 faculty members and set the minimum salary for most 9-, 10-, and 12-month faculty at $55,000; $61,000; and $67,000 respectively. These figures are based on the MIT Living Wage Calculator, which sets the annual living-wage salary for a 1-parent, 2-child family in Alachua County at roughly $58,000.

Under this proposal, the average raise for affected faculty would have exceeded $6,400 while most 9-month faculty members would have seen only $24 less per paycheck than they would have under the current raise package. In addition to easing the financial burdens of the lowest-paid faculty, these minimums would have also advanced UF’s faculty diversity and inclusion goals by ensuring that single parents, first-generation faculty, and individuals emerging from poverty or debt could live securely and do their best work at UF.

However, in the last week of negotiations, representatives of the BOT abandoned these proposals, instead falling back on far more modest salary supplements for lecturers and librarians only. After further negotiations, the Bargaining Team was able to expand these supplements to all 9- and 12-month faculty, irrespective of title.

WHERE WE GO FROM HERE

Having concluded this salary reopener, the UFF-UF Bargaining Team will now resume negotiations for a new, three-year Collective Bargaining Agreement. During these negotiations, the Bargaining Team will continue to argue for appropriate salary minimums. We will also fight for other salary and benefits proposals that were restricted under the narrow terms of the reopener. These proposals include:

  • Increasing promotion raises from 9% to 15%
  • Reinstating Sustained Performance Evaluation raises for senior faculty
  • Securing equity raises for long-time employees
  • Winning 19.5 weeks of fully paid family and parental leave

To help the Bargaining Team achieve these and other goals, please join UFF-UF, get involved, and turn out for our upcoming bargaining sessions. To learn more about the Bargaining Team’s agenda and to view the schedule of upcoming bargaining sessions, please visit https://uff-uf.org/bargaining/.