March 7, 2011
FSU EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING 3/10/11
Members Present: Marlene Kim John Hess Catherine Lynde Xiaogang Deng Kathy Kogan Peggy Walsh Phil Chassler Janet Dipaolo
Others Present: Michelle Gallagher, MTA Consultant Lorenzo Nencioli, FSU Membership Coordinator Robert Sauer, Lecturer II, History
Announcements
Faculty Council Meeting- Catherine Lynde spoke at the FC meeting about administrators’ high salaries and higher raises relative to faculty raises. She will meet with the Chancellor to discuss this further and to ask for ways that the money that would have gone to those sources could be used for other purposes.
Junior Faculty Tenure Workshop- This workshop will take place on March 30th in conjunction with the Provost’s office.
Newsletter- The newsletter will be released shortly.
MTA Legislation- The newsletter will have info on the MTA bills filed for 11-12 legislative session. The bills have also been posted on the FSU website.
Rallies at State House- There were reports on last week’s rallies at the State House in support of Wisconsin union members.
MTA Annual Meeting- The meeting will take place May 13th-14th at the Hynes Convention Center. The FSU is entitled to 14 delegates. The FSU will send out an email to members shortly asking for delegates. Ex Com members who are interested in attending should contact the FSU office.
April 13th Day of Action (Class Action)- This rally in support of public higher education is the outgrowth of the work done at the CA higher ed activist conference from January. John Hess and Lorenzo Nencioli will look into how FSU can involve itself in this endeavor.
RES Funds-There is $100K in funds for the current AY. 25% of the funds that are allocated for NTT will be set aside for an NTT Scholarship Fund to become operative in 11-12. Letters with RES funds application info will be sent by the Provost’s Office shortly.
Hidden Treasure- There will be a small event on April 14th that will not include presentations as occurred last year (proper space for the event could not be found). This year’s event will focus on artistic presentations/performances instead.
FSU Annual Member Meeting
The meeting will take place on April 13th at 3PM. LN will book the space.
FSU Website
CL reported that she has agreed to hire Union Web Services to redo the FSU website. She has been playing phone tag with UWB staffer but hopes to wrap up a service contract as soon as possible.
Ex Com Elections
Elections will be held this Spring for open Ex Com slots. Catherine Lynde, Xiaogang Deng, Victoria Palmer-Erbs, John Hess, Kathy Kogan, and Heike Schotten are all up for re-election. These Ex Com members are asked to notify LN on whether or not they plan on running. An email will be sent out shortly to FSU members soliciting Ex Com nominations.
Proposed FSU Staffer Job Description
Mickey and Lorenzo met to discuss the proposal to hire a new part-time FSU organizer. Mickey will write up a summary of the meeting/responses to the proposals and will report back to CL as soon as possible.
GIC
Gov. Patrick has decided that all GIC members must re-enroll in their health plans during the annual re-enrollment period (about April 4th through early May). If employees do not re-enroll, they will be automatically re-enrolled in a cheaper health plan. The GIC and HR will send out info to all employees and the FSU will also send info to our members on this as well. HR has agreed to tell the FSU at some point during the re-enrollment period which barg unit members have not re-enrolled so that the FSU can send them a targeted email about the process.
Block Class Schedules
CL spoke with the Provost about the need for Admin to push forward with the planned block class scheduling change (this had been agreed to by Admin in prior years in exchange for FSU agreeing to 8AM class start times). CL will push the Provost to act on this again.
Bargaining Proposals
The FSU will soon send out an email to members asking for bargaining proposals. MG suggested that negotiation teams for each campus (FSU and MSP) be formed first, after which the two teams can plan meetings to discuss ways in which the best language from both versions of the contract could be incorporated into each campus’ proposals.
CBA Status
MG reports that the FSU is still waiting to hear back from Admin on questions/concerns related to final language of the 09-12 Continuing Ed CBA. She suggests that the contract be printed and ratified regardless of whether or not Admin responds and that details on language issues can be worked out at a later date.
NTT Caucus Report
A meeting of the NTT Caucus was held on Friday, March 4th on campus. Stephen Crosby, Dean of McCormack Graduate School and head of the Implementation Design Team, spoke at the meeting about the IDT’s work and proposals. At the Caucus meeting there was extensive discussion about the plans for larger classes as well as other issues. It was reported that Patrick Day and Peter Langer will come to speak at future Caucus meetings.
Implementation Design Team
There was discussion of the IDT’s work and the importance of formulating a union response before major plans are fully enacted. There was concern that class size changes will result in altered workload requirements and that new building construction will affect parking on campus, among other issues. There was a discussion on the method by which the FSU should highlight these issues for its members. It was suggested that Admin members could be invited to speak at the FSU annual meeting or that an email could be sent to members detailing the issues.
Workload Issues
There was discussion of the issue of workload requirements and the lack of clarity on these issues in the CBA. It was noted that there are no contractual regs on class sizes which has resulted in great disparities from dept to dept on how NTT are compensated for large classes. It was also noted that there is confusion and some disagreement on how or if service is/should be compensated for NTT. MG noted that the FSU needs to get basic info from Admin on class size plans and current standards for workload before the FSU can formulate proposals on this for bargaining. CL agreed to invite Peter Langer to speak at the FSU annual meeting on these issues.
Grievance Committee Update
There was a report on the status of FSU Grievance Office Jeff Keisler, who was recently injured and is recovering. He will no longer be able to serve as GO for the rest of the semester. CL, MG, and Marlene Kim agreed to handle any new tenure-track faculty grievances issues that may arise on an ad hoc basis through the end of the semester. There were updates on ongoing grievances, including a pending arbitration case for an NTT in Management, Nursing online instructor grievances, issues related to Senior Lecturer promotions, lay-offs in CPCS, and pay issues surrounding Chemistry lab compensation.
Labor/Management Committees
There are 2 L/M committees that have completed written reports on their charges: the Phased Retirement Committee and Flexible Sabbatical Committee. These reports were presented at the last Faculty Council meeting. There was discussion of what the FSU should do with these reports. It was suggested that the reports could be presented to the Chancellor to implement the proposed policies. They could also be used as bargaining proposals for the next round of contract talks. The reports will be sent to the Ex Com for review before they are utilized further.
ORP/SERS Update
Work histories for all the 50 or so effected NTT have been received by ORP and SERS with the exception of 2 or 3 members who still need corrections made. ORP and SERS will examine the work histories and make calculations re accrued creditable time. They will contact each member with their findings before the members make a decision on whether or not to leave ORP and join SERS. MG indicated that the ORP has been cooperative and that SERS likely will be.
NTT Labor/Management Committee
L/M committee has almost completed its work. It was suggested that the committee finalize a written report and present it at the chairs’ training session.