Parking Bargaining Update

7/23/2021

Dear CSU, DCU, FSU and PSU members,

Yesterday our unions' coalition bargaining team met again with the University administration.  Our main purpose was to convey our frustration at the administration's apparent disregard of their obligation to bargain with all the unions over changes to the parking system. Those obligations are clearly spelled out in the unions' existing memoranda of understanding with the administration, which the University is committed to honor.

You all received the email on Tuesday afternoon from Parking & Transportation that included significant changes to our parking systems. These changes could create barriers to employees and students accessing the lower-cost parking at Bayside and reduce safety in our parking lots.  (See below for more details about our concerns.)

In addition, the administration's email was sent out just one day after the unions made a proposal for changes to parking for this fall as part of the bargaining process (see attached). Our proposal would expand access to semester and monthly passes and reinstitute a multi-day pass.  Rather than responding to our proposal, P&T sent out its email unilaterally imposing its own changes.

In addition to voicing our frustration and reminding the administration that it is their obligation to bargain with us, the unions called on the administration to rescind the P&T email until we have completed the bargaining process.

Below are more details about our concerns about the new P&T plans: 

1. Making Bayside "pay by phone" will likely make it unavailable to any employees or students who do not have smart phones, bank accounts or credit cards.  Given that many UMB students are homeless and some are undocumented immigrants, it is likely that they would not be able to park at Bayside--the only area of lower cost parking--and pay the daily rate.  Information provided to us by the UMB Administration shows that the vast majority of individuals (over 60%) parking in the Bayside lot pay cash.
2. Requiring passes to be tied to specific license plates, rather than just being carried by an individual, will also limit their usefulness if someone chooses to carpool or unexpectedly needs to use a different car to get to the campus.
3. We require clarity on where license plate information will reside. This information includes the plate numbers registered to obtain passes and any plates scanned in the parking lot. Who will have access to the plate numbers (P&T, public safety, etc.) and how else will this information be used?
4. The new system does not allow individuals to purchase and use a parking pass in the same day. Instead, students and employees would need to wait for three business days before their pass became available, forcing them to pay the cash rate in the meantime.
5. Leaving Bayside unstaffed is a grave concern for safety, as there have been documented assaults in the Bayside Lot. In addition, under-staffing in any of the lots leads to delays in assisting any parkers with getting into or out of the lots, and may reduce the number of good, benefited, unionized jobs on our campus.

If you have other concerns, please contact your representative on the multi-union parking bargaining team.

In solidarity,

Janelle Quarles (CSU)

Rachel Rubin (DCU)

Caroline Coscia and Joseph Brown (FSU) 

Anneta Argyres, Michelle Browning, and Jeffrey Carter (PSU)