As you know, your UFF-UF bargaining team is negotiating a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with representatives of the UF Board of Trustees (BOT). Thus far, it has secured several significant gains, made progress on long-term goals, and held back some significant threats. 

You can see all the changes that have been tentatively agreed to here.

In addition, here are some bargaining highlights:

Summer pay contributing toward retirement. The university will provide matching contributions to an employee’s retirement plan—not just for base pay, as is already the case, but for additional summer appointments. Ultimately, the goal is to require matching retirement contributions for all salary and compensation, and to phase out the misuse of OPS. This change would put UF in line with all Florida school districts and most state employers.

Justification for non-renewal of non-tenure-track faculty. The team has secured contract language that requires UF to provide justification for the non-renewal of a non-tenure-track faculty member’s appointment. Previously, the CBA only required the university to notify non-renewed faculty. This change will allow non-renewed faculty to file a grievance should the university’s action violate the CBA.

Multi-year contracts for non-tenure-track faculty. For the new CBA, we will not be able to secure mandatory multi-year contracts for non-tenure-track faculty. However, this remains our long-term goal, and in the meantime our proposals seem to have convinced the administration to take advantage of existing contract provisions to begin offering more multi-year contracts to non-tenure-track faculty. In addition, both sides are looking for ways to increase promotion opportunities and improve the promotion process for non-tenure-track faculty.

BOT policy on sexual and romantic relationships between faculty and students. In 2019, the BOT issued a ban on sexual or romantic relationships between faculty and students. The bargaining team is committed to negotiating a contract provision that ensures a safe learning environment for students while also protecting due process for members of the bargaining unit. You can read UFF’s current counter-proposal here. 

Losses we have prevented. The UF Board of Trustees’ team has backed off of several proposals that we found unacceptable. These include: designating Human Resources to lead investigations over grade disputes; forcing major concessions over the sick leave pay-out upon retirement; and expanding post-tenure reviews. 

Until bargaining is completed and a new CBA has been ratified, the current CBA remains in effect. The process of getting to the new CBA remains difficult but doable. Your membership and support will be critical, as important issues remain on the table, including faculty evaluations, tenure and promotion, salary, nondiscrimination, conflict of interest, provisions specific to P.K. Yonge, and paid leaves.

Here’s what you can do to help the bargaining team, your colleagues, and yourself:

• Attend our upcoming bargaining sessions. A full calendar of bargaining sessions is available on the UFF-UF webpage. At our next scheduled meeting—March 12, 3:30pm in Room 212 of Library West—we should hear back from the BOT’s team on the topics of paid parental leave and tenure and promotion. If these are of particular interest to you, please join us.

• Once the bargaining process has concluded, plan to make your voice heard. Changes will go into effect only after members of the bargaining unit (and, separately, the BOT) ratify the complete CBA. We are looking for a team to organize this vote. If you can help, please write to the Membership Committee at membership@uff-uf.org.

• If you are not yet a UFF-UF member, join today and support the United Faculty of Florida. The stronger our membership, the greater our impact at the bargaining table and beyond.     

In solidarity,

Raúl Sánchez, President, UFF-UF

And the UFF-UF Collective Bargaining Team:

We welcome your input. Contact us at: president@uff-uf.org or bargaining@uff-uf.org