Category: Contract

TAUP offers Long Term Care Insurance:

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The Temple Association of University Professionals (TAUP) is excited to introduce a Long-Term Care insurance [LTCi] program as a benefit for our dues-paying members, underwritten by Transamerica Life Insurance Company. Since Temple’s administration has for some years not offered this benefit and since these costs are not covered by health insurance, disability insurance or under Medicare, TAUP has decided to make this insurance benefit available to both full-time and adjunct dues-paying members on a voluntary, participant-paid basis, for a limited time only.

LTCi pays for the expenses associated with needing extended care at home or a stay in a Long-Term Care facility. The cost of Long-Term Care can vary based upon your location, the future costs of care and for how long care is needed. An average stay in a Long-Term Care facility is almost 2.5 years1 and the current average cost of nursing home care in Pennsylvania is $316/day2. Through this special offering at TAUP, you can design a Long-Term Care insurance plan that fits your unique needs and budget.

There are additional advantages to you under this program:

Unisex Pricing is available. Most individual LTCi offerings employ gender-based pricing, where rates for women are more expensive than for males.
Simplified Issue Underwriting – active employees ages 18 – 65 working at least 30 hours per week need only answer 10 Simplified Issue Health Questions.
Your spouse/domestic partner, family members & extended family are also eligible to participate in the program.
Couples Discounts of up to 30% are also available.
This voluntary benefit will be offered during the Long-Term Care insurance open enrollment period, which commences on January 14, 2019. Prior to open enrollment, you can learn more during on-campus educational workshops. These will be held on Wednesday, December 5th at 12PM and 1PM, and Thursday, December 6th at 12:30PM and 1:30PM. The location will be announced via email. Please CLICK HERE to RSVP today!

During the upcoming limited enrollment period, you will have the opportunity to meet with Harris Kivitz, our Long-Term Care Insurance Specialist, to design a plan that fits your budget. You can meet with Harris in person or online & over the phone.

Please note that LTCi does not make sense for everyone. The policy-holder should have sufficient financial assets to protect in order to justify the premiums. But even if you are not in a position to benefit from it directly, your family members may be. If you have questions about this, please contact Harris.

Once this enrollment period ends, the Simplified Issue Underwriting will only be available to new hires. Find out more about this new benefit and direct any questions to Harris Kivitz by calling 215.901.7905 or emailing kivitz1@verizon.net.

 

An Adjunct Couple Speaks for Contract Ratification

Our names are Canan and James. We’re partners and we both teach as adjunct faculty in the Department of Sociology. As adjunct faculty at Temple University, we deserve to be recognized as workers who contribute to the university’s mission to provide excellence in teaching to Temple’s diverse and engaged student population. That’s why we’re excited to be members of TAUP and ratify our first-ever union contract with an overwhelming YES  vote.

We all know too well that adjunct labor and the particular difficulties of adjunct life often remain hidden. In many cases, full-time faculty have never met the adjunct faculty in their own departments who teach a large portion of the classes and keep departments running.  Most students don’t really know if their instructor is an adjunct, and if they do, what that means for our day-to-day life. Many don’t  know what a low percentage of the tuition they pay actually goes toward paying their adjunct instructors.

Ratifying this contract will give adjuncts an immediate pay bump from $1300/credit to $1425, and another raise next year to $1500. It provides 50% and 25% health care subsidies to adjuncts.  It also lays the groundwork for adjuncts to build meaningful job security, seniority, and a promotion structure into future contracts. This contract shines light on our conditions as precarious adjunct labor, and recognizes adjuncts not simply as miscellaneous faces in the crowd, but as significant workers who put our time and energy into educating Temple’s diverse student population.

Uniting with full-time faculty in the bargaining process provides space for us to share our mutual concerns and use our strength in numbers to win. By working under a contract, adjunct faculty can begin to work towards obtaining the rights to a basic and decent livelihood that all university workers deserve. All members of TAUP will have the opportunity to ratify this contract between September 25 – 29 in an online vote. Add your name here if you plan on helping our first contract pass with an overwhelming YES vote.

In solidarity,
Canan Tanir

James Parisot

Adjunct Instructors, Sociology

Ratifying the Tentative Agreement: What You Need to Know

Now that the Executive Committee has approved the Tentative Agreement between TAUP and Temple, it needs to be ratified by our membership to take effect.   The ratification vote will take place electronically between September 25th and 29th.

 

As our Constitution and Bylaws set forth, the following groups are eligible to vote:

1)      All dues-paying full-time faculty, librarians, and academic professionals.

2)     All adjuncts who have signed a membership card AND who have taught at least one semester since Spring 2017, including this semester.  In other words, adjuncts who have signed cards and are teaching this term OR who taught Summer 17 OR Spring 17.

By September 13th, we will be sending emails to those eligible to vote, confirming their eleigiblity.  (If we have a non-Temple email, we will be using that one.)   If you believe you are eligible to vote but do not receive an email by this date, please let TAUP know (taupaft@gmail.com).  

We will also be reaching out over email and over the phone to our members in order to inform them of the details of this agreement and to listen to their questions and concerns.  We have compiled a FAQ for adjuncts, informed in part by questions they have already asked us.

 We will be holding Town Halls for members and non-members to answer any questions you have about the Tentative Agreement:

–T 9/12 11:30-1:30     Anderson 821 (Women’s Studies Lounge)

–W 9/13 12:00-2:00   Paley Library Lecture Hall, 021 (Ground Floor)

–R 9/14  11:30-1:30    Weigley Room, Gladfelter 914

–F 9/15  12:00-2:00    Paley Library Lecture Hall, 021 (Ground Floor)

 

 

–M 9/18 3:00-5:00      Anderson 005

–T 9/19 2:30-4:30        Paley Library Lecture Hall, 021 (Ground Floor)

–W 9/20 8:30-10:30   Weigley Room, Gladfelter 914

–R 9/21 4:30-6:30        Paley Library Lecture Hall, 021 (Ground Floor)

 

 

We have chosen these times to reach as broad a group as we can, and we hope to see you there.  Please contact TAUP with any questions at taupaft@gmail.com.

 

Steve Newman, ​President

Jennie Shanker, Vice President 

Norma Corrales-Martin, Treasurer

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