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Faculty union contract vote, Tu October 8

10/2/2013: Updated announcement with links. 

I apologize but we do not have a budget or dues rate yet. Nothing nefarious, I’m traveling and the OC is busy with the contract and classes etc. Hard to arrange a meeting time to approve everything. I’d post the draft but I’m just one of many involved in this, so that would be presumptuous.

An email sent to bargaining unit members about the 10/8 meeting:

Colleagues,
Next Tuesday’s General Membership Meeting and Contract Ratification Vote are rapidly approaching!  Please mark your calendars and make time to ratify our Tentative Agreement with the UO Administration.
Many of you have written-in asking about the schedule for 10/8.  Here is the agenda for next Tuesday:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ERB MEMORIAL UNION BALLROOM, 6PM-9PM
5PM doors open for member check-in–voting begins
6PM–meeting convenes–Chief negotiators present the contract
6:30PM–Q & A with the bargaining team
7:30PM–Finance committee presents local budget and dues proposal to membership
8:00PM–Q & A with the finance committee
9:00PM – Meeting and Voting Conclude
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The contract ratification vote will continue until 9PM–ballots will be counted at the end of the meeting and results will be announced via email.
The contract summary, the budget, and the dues proposal will be available at the meeting.

Members do not have to stay for the entire meeting.  You may come, vote, and leave at any time during the meeting.  However, we encourage everyone to attend the entire presentation and participate in the discussion.

9/20/2013: Union to use Treetops for contract ratification meeting?

That’s the rumor from the profs playing darts down at the Faculty Club tonight. Hard to think of a more appropriate location, really. Pernsteiner was evicted a few months ago, and if the celebratory goat roast gets out of control – god forbid – the cops will have a hard time figuring out who’s the landlord and enforcing the Social Host Ordinance. Meeting is set for the evening of October 8, details later. 

26 Comments

  1. Old Grey Mare 09/21/2013

    But enforcers WILL show up. Where’s the keg?

  2. Anonymous 09/30/2013

    Union certification gets spread out over months and vote can be cast from anywhere. But for the contract you have to show up at a specific place and time or else no vote? Is there a quorum requirement? Will BU members be able to join the union on site (and thus get the right to vote)? If the answer to either of those questions is “no,” it sounds like a recipe for a handful of die-hards to ram the contract through.

    • Anonymous 09/30/2013

      Yes, a year-plus-long membership drive where each faculty member was probably contacted 3-5 times to find out whether they wanted to join and/or joining is as easy as showing up to in the union office one block from campus combined with a bargaining unit-wide email about the time and place for the ratification meeting sounds EXACTLY like a recipe for a few die-hards to ram that contract though.

      Damn union thugs and their underhanded, closed-door tactics!

    • Anonymous 10/01/2013

      For the record, I’m an associate professor in the bargaining unit, and I’ve never been contacted to find out whether I wanted to join the union. (Of course, if I had wanted to join, I would have been perfectly capable of figuring out how to do it.)

  3. Anonymous 09/30/2013

    I have a few questions. Does anyone have answers for these?

    1) Is the UOUA constitution available online? After a cursory search I can’t find it and the old links from uomatters don’t work anymore.

    2) What are the requirements for passage of the contract (I imagine that this can be found in the constitution)? I do know that the “dues structure” requires a quorum (of I think 30%, but maybe as much as 50% of the membership) for a vote. In the absence of a quorum the dues change is automatically approved.

    3) What are the details of the proposed dues structure? What is the membership dues and what is the “fair share” payment? Is a detailed breakdown of the destination of the dues available? How much goes to the national organizations? How much for bargaining? How much for political action?

    4) Who is on the finance committee?

    5) Will there be booze at the meeting? Or should I bring my own?

    • UO Matters 09/30/2013

      I’m on the finance committee, we’ll send out dues info in a few days.

    • Anonymous 09/30/2013

      Thanks, Anonymous below, for the link to the constitution (why is it still labelled “draft”? And would it kill them to make it a text searchable document?). According to the bylaws (Article IV, section 6, page 22, line 46) they have to circulate a draft copy of the contract. Where and when should we expect this?

      To answer my question #2, there is *no* quorum requirement for this vote. It will be won by a bare majority of those present and voting. Thus, those who feel strongly about this contract one way or the other should attend (and bring others who are like-minded).

      The standard quorum is 25% of the membership. I imagine that there’s very little chance of this quorum being met at the meeting and so the dues structure will automatically become rule if the contract is passed.

      So, in summary: If you are for the contract and the dues, go the meeting and vote “yes” on both. If you are against the contract or against the dues, go to the meeting and vote “no” on the contract.

    • Anonymous 09/30/2013

      Thanks, UO Matters. So now the only outstanding questions are:

      4) Who (else) is on the finance committee?

      5) What about the booze? A labor union without booze is like… well, it just doesn’t seem like any fun!

    • Kira Homo 10/01/2013

      Anonymous above, I’m also on the Finance Committee. I’m a career NTTF–an archivist in Special Collections and University Archives, Knight Library.

    • Anonymous 10/01/2013

      Hi Kira, thanks for replying.

      Is the membership of the finance committee public knowledge or is it confidential? Is there a list somewhere? I know that the faculty union is (rightly) a strong advocate for transparency, but sometimes it’s difficult to find information about the union (for example, current committees membership and minutes).

    • UO Matters 10/01/2013

      UAUO Finance:
      Michael Dreiling (Soc)
      Deb Green (Judaic studies)
      Bill Harbaugh (Econ)
      Kira Homo (Library)

    • Anonymous 10/01/2013

      Thanks for the information, UO Matters.

      And now, more questions!

      Can we expect the dues proposal to be circulated today? I think that’s required by the bylaws (although it’s all a little bit confusing as the Executive council and some of the other structures in the constitution and bylaws don’t exist yet).

      Could anyone bring clarity to the terms and conditions of the vote(s) on Tuesday? Will amendments be entertained on the dues structure? And if not, under what authority will they be forbidden, since the bylaws only discuss an amendment of the dues as recommended by the representative assembly, which is not yet extant.

  4. Awesome0 09/30/2013

    1.

    2.

    3. We know until the meeting, what the dues proposal is. I say no more than what PSU is paying.

    My question, how can we confirm our membership before the vote?

    • Three-Toed Sloth 09/30/2013

      If you signed a membership card, you’re on the list of voting members. If you’re not sure, you can call United Academics and ask. 541.636.4714

  5. Anonymous 09/30/2013

    Where can I read the contract?

    • UO Matters 09/30/2013

      Final version should be out shortly, meanwhile Altmann’s fact-check site has the cleanest copies.

  6. Anonymous 10/01/2013

    We’re clearly better off with the union, but they fell short on compensation in my mind. We’re paying for that, so they should pay along with us. Lower dues. Next time around, the dues should be an increasing function of the percent increases they get for us.

    • Member 10/02/2013

      “They fell short on compensation…” ?

      I guess that means you’re not a member. If you want some say in ratifying the contract and being involved in negotiations next time so you can have a handle in what the raises are, join the union.

      As a union member, I think non-members should pay more. The union got them raises and all kinds of other protections. And, the union will protect them just like any other union member should they need it. ;-)
      BTW, as far as I know, you can sign up at the meeting and vote. Of course then you’ll have to pay no more than 1.2% of your salary.

      Oh and another thing…PSU is raising its dues because it doesn’t have enough money.

    • Anonymous 10/02/2013

      You guess? No, I’m a member. Is it a shocker that there might be some diversity of opinion within the union?

    • Anonymous 10/02/2013

      Kind of funny that the science and law profs, who make more than most other fields, get the benefits and don’t pay a dime in dues or pseudo-dues.

    • Anonymous 10/03/2013

      The “fell short on compensation” comment is an easy criticism. No risk of being proven wrong, no need to be proven right.

      It completely ignores what actually happened, but who cares? As long as someone can feel all puffed up behind a casual claim devoid of reason or evidence.

    • Anonymous 10/03/2013

      It is a normative statement. As many others have expressed, I think the union should not have caved so easily on economics.

  7. Anonymous 10/02/2013

    FYI I “think” there’s a mistake in the summary which says salary increase as of 1/1/2012.. According to the full draft, there is not an ATB raise effective January 2012. Should be 2013 ATB for those hired by 6/30/2012. Separate increase ATB effective 7/1/13 for everyone hired by December 2012.

  8. Anonymous 10/03/2013

    What is the basis for the union dues rate? Is it based on some sort of cost metric, or do they just get to squeeze out as much as they think that can get away with? Around the time the union was forming, word on dues was “No more than 1%”–seems like they’re aiming higher now.

    • Anonymous 10/03/2013

      The union dues rate will be based on the unions goals, its estimated budget for accomplishing those goals and the breakdown of members/non-members. Pretty straightforward – nothing nefarious.

      The Finance Committee is working on that budget.

      if you are concerned then show up, become a member, vote, be heard.

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