Update From The FSU Grievance Committee
5/24/24
Dear Colleague,
The Grievance Committee (GC) is currently working on 1 formal grievance (a “grievance” is the process by which resolution of possible violations of your contract rights can occur; for more, we encourage you to read this FSU primer on the grievance procedure and this primer on contract and other rights). In addition to this formal grievance, the GC has spent countless hours on grievance- and contract-related matters with FSU members that have not resulted in formal grievances. These matters include: informal resolution of contract violations, apprising members of their contract rights, providing advice on and support for Title IX investigations, dismissal cases and other potential disciplinary hearings, attending Weingarten hearings (see below), attending GC meetings, assessing potential contract language issues for contract negotiations, and much more. Since the last update, we sent to members on December 18, 2023, the GC has had at least 40 such cases/interactions with FSU members.
We would like to report on a few of the formal and informal pending grievance and contract-related matters that we think are most relevant to members. For reasons of confidentiality, we cannot report on all the pending grievance- and contract-related matters; click on the links below for further information on each grievance item listed.
In addition, we strongly urge you to familiarize yourself with Weingarten Rights—that is, your right to have a union witness present for any meeting with your supervisor that is of an investigatory nature or which may have disciplinary repercussions. See the Grievance tab on the FSU website for more info, including a link to a more detailed MTA primer on Weingarten Rights.
Members who believe that their contract rights have been violated have sixty days from the date of the infraction or sixty days from when they learned of or should have learned of the infraction to file a grievance. See Article 25 of the contract for details. Contact the FSU office if you have questions about your contract rights or if you think your contract rights may have been violated.
Previous grievance updates can be seen here.
From the FSU Grievance Committee:
Paul Dyson, Senior Lecturer III, English
Maria Hegbloom, MTA Field Rep
Glover Martin, Lecturer, Biology
Laurie Milliken, Associate Professor, Exercise and Health Sciences
Lorenzo Nencioli, FSU Senior Staff Member
Heidi Stanish, Professor, Exercise and Health Sciences
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