Tag: rally

From the Table: April 18th, 2019 Negotiation Session

On Thursday, TAUP sat down with the University’s administration for the first day of open negotiations for a new contract. In addition to the table team, over 20 people from TAUP’s Collective Bargaining Unit showed up to observe the discussion, a great success for our first time using Open Bargaining, in which all members of the CBU are invited to attend.  Our next confirmed sessions are  May 3rd, 9:00 a.m.-noon and May 6, 1-5 p.m. at Temple University Center City. Let TAUP know if you’d like to attend.

Early Settlement

We are pleased by the cooperative spirit that the administration has shown in our complex discussions setting forth the process for these negotiations.  As we described in previous bulletins, we have agreed to pursue an early settlement on wages, benefits, and job stability/security, with parallel processes on other important issues, including rules defining who in the library is in the Union; grievances; resources for adjuncts to meet 1:1 with students and for other needs; workload concerns; and diversity.

We put a wide range of proposals on the table yesterday, all informed by our union’s central value–that our members should be treated as the professionals as they are and fully and equitably rewarded for their accomplishments. These are the proposals we put out this week; more are forthcoming.

Proposal: Compensation

  • Significant Across-the-Board raises

  • Increases in merit

  • New salary minima, that should increase every year of the contract

  • Increases in overload pay

  • Increases in summer pay

  • A research fund for FT faculty who conduct independent studies

  • Pay for adjuncts conducting independent studies

  • Pay for required adjunct service

Temple Can Afford these Increases  

Since signing the full-time contract in 2014 and an adjunct agreement in 2017, the University has been doing very well financially, with large increases in unrestricted net assets, a very large net positive in revenues over expenses, and a decrease in debt load.  Even with challenges on the horizon, we believe that Temple will continue to do well, thanks in significant part to the excellent work done by our faculty, librarians, and academic professionals. However, the percentage of Temple’s budget devoted to instruction has remained flat.  Many of our members struggle to pay their bills, to afford health care, and to balance their work lives with their lives outside of work. This must change.

Proposal: Increased Tenure-Track Hiring; Adjunct and Full-Time Non-Tenure Track Job Stability

  • A mandated increase in tenure-track hiring.

  • Priority in hiring and long-term contracts for adjuncts with significant length of service and who receive satisfactory evaluations

We believe that the lack of job stability for all of our faculty must be addressed. There is a side-letter in the contract that already commits Temple to tenure-track hiring, and although Temple has continued to hire some tenure-track professors, the statistics for at least two decades are clear–in total numbers and as a percentage of the faculty as a whole, tenure-track faculty numbers have declined at an alarming rate.  The percentage of tenure-track faculty within the bargaining unit as a whole be increased by a total of 1% for every year of the contract.

Those who are not eligible for the protections of tenure–approximately 75% of our bargaining unit–deserve more job stability.  Building on the good work done by the labor-management committees emerging out of the adjunct contract, we have proposed an avenue for adjunct faculty to gain priority in hiring and longer-term appointments.  This increased stability is tied to an evaluation processes that goes beyond SFFs, and ensures that our members have been given the guidance they need to excel in their department.

At our next session on May 3rd, we will be putting forth a job security proposal for full-time non-tenure track faculty.

Proposal: Maternity and Parental Leave; Sick Leave

  • 12 weeks of paid maternity leave, replacing the inadequate benefit for librarians and increasing the 8 weeks full-time members get, eliminating the classification of pregnancy as a sickness.

  • A modification that clarifies the benefit that gives full-time faculty who are new parents a semester free from teaching, to be used within 12 months of the child’s arrival.

  • Librarians’ sick leave no longer subject to a University rule not appropriate to professionals.

Proposal: Parity in NTT Pensions

The idea of parity extends beyond minimum pay.  One of our biggest gains in the 2014 contract was that the pension match for NTTs was brought close to parity with tenure-track faculty.  It is time to close that gap for these colleagues, and we have made a proposal to do just that.

Proposal: Merit Pay:  More Transparency and Equity for Research NTTs

TAUP often gets complaints from members who believe that the merit system is opaque and unfair, and there are never enough merit units to adequately reward the amazing work our members do.  In addition to proposing a bump in merit, we have proposed that departments specify the range of units members can expect for specific accomplishments. Some departments already do this, many do not, which leads to an unsettling unpredictability for our members.

We have also been informed that NTTs whose salaries come entirely from grants are not guaranteed the merit they are due; at best, they can build this into the salary requested in their grant applications. We have proposed a solution to this.

Proposal: Childcare and Tuition Benefits at Other Schools

We reminded the administration that the joint Faculty Senate-TAUP Committees conveyed proposals on these two important issues last May and that the contract requires a formal administrative response that is long overdue.

How You Can Help: Rally on May and Upcoming Negotiation Sessions

Support TAUP in its fight to realize a vision of Temple where our members are properly rewarded and our teaching, research, and service are better-supported.

Join us for a rally at the Bell Tower on May 1st from 12-1

If you would like to support the Table Team by attending the May 3rd, 9-noon and/or May 6th, 1-5.p.m. bargaining sessions, RSVP to let TAUP know.

TAUP’s Table Team

Member

Constituency

School

TAUP role

Steve Newman

Tenured/Tenure Track

CLA

President

Jennie Shanker

Adjunct

Tyler

Vice President

Norma Corrales-Martin

Non-Tenure Track

CLA

Treasurer

Fred Rowland

Librarian

Exec. Committee

Chair Library Constituency Council

Don Wargo

Non-Tenure Track

CLA

Exec. Committee

Member-at-Large NTT Constituency Council

Paul LaFollette

Tenured/Tenure Track

CST

TAUP Member

Zoe Cohen

Adjunct

Tyler

Exec. Committee

Chair Adjunct Constituency Council

ALTERNATES

Jeff Solow

Tenured/Tenure Track

Boyer

Exec. Committee

Member-at-Large TT Constituency Council

Sam Allingham

Adjunct

CLA

Member-at-Large, Adjunct Constituency Council

Debbi Casey

Non-Tenure Track

Fox

TAUP Member

Nia Jackson

Academic Professional

CLA

TAUP Member

 

Keep up to date with TAUP by following our social media:

Twitter: @TAUP

Facebook: @TAUPAFT

Instagram: @taup4531

 

Negotiations Update 

TUESDAY NEGOTIATION SESSION CANCELLED: THURSDAY IS ON!

Unfortunately, a personal emergency has forced the sides to delay of the first negotiating session to Thursday, April 18th from 2:00-5:00 at Temple University Center City, room to be determined.  While there is still one outstanding issue for the administration to respond to in order to settle on the process, we anticipate that it will be resolved, so we are looking forward to sitting down with the administration on Thursday.

We are engaging in Open Bargaining for the first time in our union’s history. All members of the Bargaining Unit, regardless of TAUP membership, are invited to witness the negotiations and to engage with the table team during breaks.  Open Bargaining promotes transparency and accountability and shows solidarity among TAUP’s faculty, librarians and academic professionals which gives us the power to achieve common priorities.  To do this, we need your participation to ensure robust attendance at each session.

If you are interested in attending Thursday’s session, please contact the TAUP Office, taupaft@gmail.com so we can reach out to  you once the room is confirmed.  Please plan to arrive at 1:30 p.m. to learn about your role in Open Bargaining and the rules that govern the process.

 

RALLY: May 1, Noon-1pm at the Bell Tower

Before the semester ends, you’re also invited to make time to show your support for the work your TAUP colleagues have been doing, and meet with union leaders and activists to discuss the issues that we are fighting to make progress on.  Join us on Wednesday, May 1st at the Bell Tower from Noon – 1pm, to show Temple that whether or not you are able to show up for a bargaining session or not, you support TAUP’s work at the table.  If you can come plan to join us, please rsvp here .

 

Unemployment Compensation Workshops

TAUP members can collect Unemployment Compensation over the summer to cover basic costs during the break, or even for the upcoming year.

You may be eligible if:

  • You have been told that you will not be working in the fall, due to no fault of your own (ex: you didn’t quit, were not fired, etc.)
  • If you will be working fewer hours / teaching fewer courses in the fall than this term
  • If you’ve been told that you’ll be teaching in the fall, but there is a good chance that the course you’ve been offered will not run.

TAUP offers 90 minute workshops to help our members:

  • Understand Unemployment Compensation and how it works
  • Assess their eligibility
  • Understand key terms, concepts and questions that are used in the process
  • Fill out UC applications as accurately as possible

If you would like to attend a workshop, please fill out this form with your availability.

If you have any questions, contact Jennie Shanker at jshanker1@gmail.com

 

Childcare

Do you know an undergraduate student who needs help paying for child care?  The US Department of Education has provided four years of funding to our colleague Annemarie Hindman in the School of Ed that will pay full childcare costs for undergraduate students on Pell Grants.  Please announce this to your classes and share with any undergrad students who might need child care.  Advise students that this child care will be available for the next 3 years, but there are limited slots. Students need to contact Dr. Hindman as soon as possible.

 

 

TAUP Digest 4/8-4/12/2019

Negotiations UpdateClose to Setting Dates

 

TAUP and the administration have made significant progress in agreeing to a process for negotiations; there is only one outstanding issue, and we are hopeful it can be resolved as we await a reply from the administration.  We are therefore close to setting dates and will let you know the time and place as soon they are confirmed.  Our hope is that we will sit down together within two weeks.

 

Once bargaining does begin, we will need you, our members, to pay close attention to our communications from the table, to calls to attend events.  We will need you to communicate with us, and to come to witness negotiations when you can.  When the administration sees members supporting their colleagues in union work,  we will be in a good position to win the contract we deserve.  Let TAUP know if you want to get more involved in our Contract Campaign, Organizing, or Data Teams. 

 

Save the Date:  Rally for a Fair Contract May 1, Bell Tower, noon-1:00 p.m.!

 

We’ll be gathering on Wednesday, May 1st at the Bell Tower from noon-1:00 p.m. to rally for a fair contract.  Speakers will include members of TAUP and other unions as well as legislators.  Come support our vision for Temple!   (Rain site: 217D in the Howard Gittis Student Center)

 

 

Tentative Agreements Reached at CCP and Arcadia

 

We are happy to report that the Faculty and Staff Federation of the Community College of Philadelphia (AFT 2026) and the adjunct union at Arcadia, affiliated with United Academics of Philadelphia (AFT 9608) have both recently signed Tentative Agreements.  Both are the result of YEARS of determined bargaining and solidarity, and we salute our sister unions and hope for a speedy and smooth ratification! 

 

Faculty Voices

This week’s faculty voice comes from another local institution. Daniel Pieczkolon teaches at Arcadia University and has been a leader in their successful effort to unionize. Daniel spoke at TAUP’s Campaign Kick-Off event in March about the power of solidarity across local higher ed institutions.

 

Thank you to Abbey Bricker, Organizer Extraordinaire!

Last week, we bid farewell to our wonderful staff organizer, Abbey Bricker, who has taken a job with SEIU in Ohio.  For two years, Abbey did a fantastic job helping to move our union to a more activist organizing model.  She trained a large cohort of activists who will be able to continue this work in her absence and helped install our current system of Departmental Organizers. She was a joy to work with, and we wish her the best in her new job, continuing the fight for fair working conditions and the dignity of labor.  TAUP is now searching for a new staff organizer and will keep you posted.

 

Have you become a TAUP Member?

When  people represented by a union stand together and show that they support the work being done by their colleagues, they increase the strength of their own voice at the table. When the administration sees that membership is growing, they know that the work of the union is reinforced.

 

Dues paying members increase their union’s ability to leverage the gains that members need and want to see.  Over the next two weeks, member activists will be reaching out to colleagues to ask them to join TAUP. If you haven’t signed your membership card yet, now is your chance! Join here. If you have questions about becoming a dues paying member, reach out to our office taupaft@gmail.com.