September 23, 2014

Members Present: Marlene Kim  Peggy Walsh  Ursula Tafe   Amy Todd   Kathy Kogan  Heike Schotten Linda Dumas   Tina Mullins  Doreen Drury

 

Others Present: Mickey Gallagher, MTA Consultant   Jeff Keisler, FSU Grievance Officer   Al Leisinger, FSU Grievance Officer

 

 

Anti-Bullying Workshop- October 15, 12-2; expert from MTA will talk at meeting; MG: high rate of faculty report being bullied by other faculty (twice average); important issue for our members. We will advertise it with our members. Peggy Walsh, Heike Schotten interested in this issue. Further data on the extent of bullying would be useful to educate our members.

 

KACE- Software that UMB is putting on all computers. It’s supposed to help with quicker updates. Some faculty are concerned because it could lead to snooping, monitoring.  Faculty will raise these concerns at the next IT Committee meeting.  Impact bargaining could occur if this does not address the issue. Tina Mullins will monitor effort.

 

Agency Fee Challenge at UMA- Right to Work Foundation spearheading  this challenge on behalf of 2 UMA faculty (6 locals in MA also involved in effort). MTA challenging case at DLR (case seeks to abolish ability of union to charge agency fee).

 

Benefits for PT NTT- Negotiation with MTA Higher Ed and GIC should go through; will result in benefits for any state employee if you work 30 or more hours combined over any state institution or several state institutions.  This is better than the status quo but there is some concern since 30 hours is almost full-time.

 

MTA Legislative Agenda- Meeting September 26, 12PM and September 24, 4PM with MTA rep to discuss ideas for legislative agenda. FSU will send email with 2 dates.

 

Petition Delivery to Chancellor- Many give-backs being asked of union members (i.e. PSU would lose overtime comp). Petitions given to Chancellor opposing this; posters can be put up. There was a discussion of the term ‘give-back’ and whether or not members will understand it. Need to have terminology more comprehensible. MG: term is ‘take-backs’.  Discussion of why take-backs are occurring (poor staffing, indifference to labor relations in President’s Office according to MG). UT: Need for explanation of details on proposed take-backs and how long benefits have been in contract. Email will be sent, including link to petition (to be put in multiple places).

 

October 7th, UMB on the Common- PSU wants to continue picketing re take-back campaign at this event. Amy Todd will be the point person for FSU. Heike, Amy will work with PSU on this.

 

CSU/PSU Bargaining Update meeting, September 29th, 12PM- to discuss bargaining and campaign around take-backs. Open to FSU members.

 

We are looking for examples of excess or unnecessary spending.   Discussion of examples at UMB and the issue of how employees are not able to get financial spending info from UMB. 

 

Report on BOT Meeting- Petitions delivered, press covered event.

 

Bargaining Update Meeting¬- 9/30/14. Open to all members.

 

ORP-SERS- Deadline 10/27/14 to send in letter of interest (would not be a firm commitment to switch- just statement of interest).

 

New Grievance Officer for NTT- AL: recommendation coming from AL, LK. Interviews being conducted with interested members. Need to replace Phil Chassler, who stepped down as grievance officer. Discussion of Grievance Committee, how it is appointed, how it should continue, how to get more members involved in grievance AND general union issues. 

 

NTT Orientations¬ and NTT Caucus- Reminder re NTT Caucus to be sent 9/24/14

 

New FSU Staffer- Rani Gupta is new Administrative Assistant (part-time). 

 

Chairs Organizing Update- New chairs as of Fall 14 need to sign cards, spoken to re efforts. HS will talk with Lynnell, Erin, Elora. UT will talk to Darren Kew. AL will talk to Greg Sun. JK will talk to Peng Xu. Doreen will talk with Roberta Wollons. LN will send cards, talking points to Ex Com members talking to chairs re signing up. Still waiting on DLR decision. 

 

Phone Banking¬- General election coming up; MK: waiting on info from MTA re details on phone banking for Coakley (would involve calling MTA members). Email will be sent to members.  UT will help organize FSU member volunteers (possibly use off-site restaurant, make it a social event); PW will call. MG: Ferd at MSP can be a good resource for this. 

 

Departure of Ex-Com members- one spot now empty. Ex Com goes into executive session. Motion to leave seat unfilled following past precedent. Motion seconded. Motion passes.

 

Grievance Report- MG: Asked MTA for intern to be assigned to FSU to strategize on Admin issues. Intern is a faculty member in state college system and will help us with education campaign. MG: need to have 3 or 4 people to meet initially to plan next steps on this campaign. HS will work on this campaign.

 

Impact Bargaining on Parking- Meeting on 9/24/14. Will propose valet option, safety options, no higher fees, flex time, no non-UMB parkers, incentives to use T, etc. 

 

Main Table Bargaining Update- 3.5% raise agreed to (40% of total raise is merit), increase in salary anomaly money to $60K, research money increased. Problem with proposed 120 cap in sick leave. MG: almost agreed re sick leave (proposal would be for new employees only, would sunset after 3 years, labor management committee to look at alternative options).

 

Report: MTA Summer Conference: AL attended. Reported that there is a split in attitude re last MTA election. Attended local presidents’ meeting. Impressed by structure of meeting (much more open and collaborative than in the past). Passed out petition re fired Holyoke Teachers’ Union President. Petition to be circulated by Ex Com members.