Month: December 2019

Electing a New TAUP Vice President

Our strength as a union comes from every faculty member, AP and Librarian actively participating in our quest to build an even better Temple. With Jennie Shanker stepping down from her role as TAUP VP, we now need to elect a new Vice President to serve out the remainder of her term, which ends April 30, 2021. We encourage anyone interested in serving as Vice-President, or in getting involved in any other way, to reach out. Our bylaws set a deadline of 60 days after the vacancy opens–in this case, January 2nd–to elect a replacement.  All members in good standing are eligible to serve. Only members in good standing are eligible to vote.

Here is the timeline and process:

–Nominations are open from now until January 20th.  Candidates can be self-nominated or nominated by others.  If you are self-nominating, please send an email declaring your intention to stand for election.  Those nominated by others will be asked if they are willing to stand. Nominations should be sent to taupaft@gmail.com.

–Nominees will send information about their rank, track, and college/school and a statement of no more than 400 words as to why they are seeking the office.

–The Nominations Committee will review the nominees to make sure that they are members in good standing.

–The list of candidates and their statements will be distributed to dues-paying members, along with a link to the ballot on January 23rd.

–The ballot will be open from January 23rd to noon, January 31st.  Voting will occur electronically, with links to the ballot sent through email.  Members wishing for paper ballots must request them by January 20th by sending the request to taupaft@gmail.com .

–Results will be announced on January 31st and the new VP will take office on February 1.

We again thank Jennie Shanker for her extraordinary service to TAUP, and we look forward to receiving a strong group of nominees for Vice President.

 

Deepest Thanks to Jennie Shanker

After 2.5 years of invaluable service as TAUP’s Vice President, Jennie Shanker has decided to pursue her research, teaching and other opportunities outside of Temple, making her no longer eligible to serve as TAUP’s Vice President.

Enough cannot be said in praise of her tireless work on behalf of TAUP, from helping to bring adjuncts into our union to running Unemployment Compensation Workshops to co-writing and editing our communications to designing the TAUP website to playing a lead role in negotiations.  As the President of TAUP, I know how much any successes we’ve enjoyed over the past three years are due to her talents, commitment, energy, and insight.

Luckily for us, she will continue to help TAUP, working on special projects such as re-examining our Constitution and Bylaws, formulating a communications strategy, working on our website and social media, and helping to lead upcoming issue campaigns.

We will be conducting an election for a new VP, and again, thank Jennie Shanker for her extraordinary service.

TAUP CONTRACT 2019-23 RATIFIED!

TAUP is pleased to report that voting has now closed and the results are in: With a total of 639 voters, 607 members voted yes on ratification and 32 voted no–or 95% to 5%. 58% of eligible voters cast a vote.

This contract represents significant gains both economic and non-economic for our membership. Now we have to make sure that this new contract is enforced. We intend to continue working toward gains we were unable to make in this contract, especially on child care and the diversity of our bargaining unit. We will be building on this momentum so that when we are next at the table we will be even stronger. For that to happen members need to be actively involved. That means if you are not currently a member, it’s time to join. If you want to get involved in efforts that will result in even greater gains in the future, please contact Jenna Siegel, our staff organizer.

JOIN TAUP!

The outcome of this vote is a strong affirmation of what our union has achieved, and, as is true of any union effort, this was a collective one. So we have many people to thank.

We would like to acknowledge the members of our Negotiating Team:

Chief Negotiator: Shelly Snyder (AFTPA)
Academic Professionals: Nia Jackson
Librarians: Fred Rowland; Leanne Finnagan (alternate); Jill Luedke (alternate)
Non-tenure Track Faculty: Donald Wargo; Kolson Schlosser (alternate)
Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty: Paul LaFollette; Jeff Solow (alternate)
Adjunct Faculty: Andrew Dudenbostel; Alex Schechter (alternate)
Officers: Steve Newman (President); Jennie Shanker (Vice President); Norma Corrales-Martin (Treasurer)

We also want to acknowledge the Executive Committee, who provided guidance and support throughout:

TT: Marsha Weinraub; Will Jordan
Non-tenure Track Faculty: Donald Wargo; Mary Stricker
Adjuncts: Ben Curttright; Carla Anderson
Librarian: Fred Rowland
Officers: Steve Newman (President); Jennie Shanker (VP); Norma Corrales-Martin (Treasurer)

TAUP’s staff provided invaluable support: Patricia Blakely, John Campbell-Orde, Dolly Hamilton, and Jenna Siegel.

We are grateful to the more than 140 members who attended Open Bargaining and lent their support and insights to the Negotiating Team.

We were fortunate to have David Hughes of Rutgers and Tom Anderson of Wayne State come to negotiations to lend their expertise. At our rally, we received support from hundreds of members, graduate students (led by TUGSA), undergraduates (especially Temple Students Against Sweatshops), elected officials (Reps. Malcolm Kenyatta, Joe Hohenstein and Councilwoman Helen Gym), and other unions, including PASNAP and UFCW.

We were also assisted by letters of support from Councilwoman Gym and Reps. Joe Hohenstein, Chris Rabb, Malcolm Kenyatta, Danilo Burgos, and James Roebuck.

Thanks to all of these supporters and to all of our members. We wish you a good end to the semester and a restful and productive Winter Break. We look forward to resuming our work together in the New Year.