Please Vote on Your Raises
Salary negotiations have concluded! On Weds., 8 Nov., the UFF-UF Bargaining Team and representatives of the UF Board of Trustees tentatively agreed to a 3.2% merit raise pool for higher education faculty. The previous day, both parties tentatively agreed to a 3.75% raise pool for faculty at P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School, with raises distributed according to criteria outlined in this document.
Higher education faculty will have the opportunity to vote on this tentative agreement at the following locations and times:
- Library West (South Colonnade): Tues., 14 Nov., Weds 15 Nov., and Thurs., 16 Nov., 12pm-1:30pm
- Reitz Union (North Colonnade): Tues., 14 Nov., Weds 15 Nov., and Thurs., 16 Nov., 1:30pm-3pm
P.K. Yonge faculty will have the opportunity to vote at the P.K. Yonge campus. More information on voting locations and times will be communicated to P.K. Yonge faculty.
Give your union volunteers your feedback by showing up at these locations to vote on your raises and share your thoughts and ideas.
Reflecting on the Results
These tentative agreements are quite frankly disappointing. Despite the UFF-UF Bargaining Team’s hard work since the start of negotiations two months ago, these agreements fall far short of both faculty members’ needs and our carefully-reasoned 11.6% raise proposal based on the increase in state appropriations. Indeed, even with this 3.2% raise, UF faculty have, on average, taken a 4.7% pay cut in terms of their salaries’ purchasing power just since 2020.
While we are proud of the small gains we have made at the bargaining table – the UF BOT, after all, entered negotiations with a 3.0% merit raise proposal – the 0.2% increase UF is now offering costs only $640,000: a small sum compared to the windfall 13.6% or $130M increase in state education and general recurring funds received by UF. The difference between the union’s previous offer of 5.2% and the 3.2% agreed upon is $6.4 million. This figure also falls more than a half-million dollars shy of the combined $7 million that UF recently spent for its initial payment on McKinsey & Company continuing consulting contract, as well as a handful of President’s Office administrators, hired at more than double their previous salaries.*
We chose to settle, not because we believe these raises are adequate, but because the Board of Trustees is clearly unwilling to budge from their current position. We did not, in short, want to delay the arrival of your raise when we do not believe that a better offer is possible.
But while the present calls for disappointment, it does not call for despair. In the course of bargaining, we secured significant insight into UF’s plans for state appropriations – information that, without our union’s tough questions, UF would have kept in the shadows. We also voiced faculty’s frustration with UF for expecting that, year after year, we do more for salaries that do less.
Looking Ahead
Going forward, we can do better. But winning the kind of raises we need will require more UF faculty to join UFF-UF, to get actively involved in the union, and to speak out on this and other critical issues. Join now and support these efforts!
In the meantime, the UFF-UF Bargaining Team will turn its full attention to ensuring that the post-tenure review (PTR) process is as fair, equitable, and easy-to-navigate as possible. Please look out for updates on PTR in your weekly UFF-UF newsletter.
Tentative agreement can be reviewed here.
*CORRECTION: A previous version of this post incorrectly indicated the 0.2% increase to the University’s initial salary raise offer cost the University $6.4 million. The actual cost to the University is $640,000. This has been corrected in the above post.
Additionally, a previous version of this post implied the University spent a total of $7 million for consulting services from McKinsey & Company, as well as a handful of President’s Office administrators. That figure only includes the initial made to McKinsey & Company and the President’s Office administrators. This has been corrected in the above post.
No changes were made to the notice of ratification balloting.