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New UC NTTF research faculty union approves 1st contract

Thanks to a loyal reader for the link:

Members of the union—Academic Researchers United (ARU)—ratified the 3-year deal in a 2450-to-53 vote on 8 November. The contract guarantees:

    • Salary increases of up to 24% over the duration of the contract
    • Eligibility to participate in the same benefits and retirement programs as other academic employees
    • Expanded and more flexible sick leave and paid time off
    • Access to the same parking and transit programs as other academic employees
    • Reimbursement for work-related travel expenses
    • Mandatory minimum 1-year appointments and scheduled merit reviews
    • Protections against being fired or disciplined arbitrarily
    • The right to continue their work in another lab if they formally accuse someone in their primary lab of discrimination or sexual harassment

4 Comments

  1. thedude 12/02/2019

    Will our union negotiate, or walk away from the table with 1-2 percent annual raises (like last time) that make leaving the union attractive or even necessary because cost of living is going up at 4 percent a year in Oregon….

    Also on the admin side of things, Gottfriedsen may not have been well liked in how he related to faculty, but at least he was trying to compensate faculty and catch up to AAU peers…

    • uomatters Post author | 12/02/2019

      The biggest donation Gottfredson brought in was $10M – for a softball field. And the foundation had to pay him $940k in unrestricted donations to leave town. I guess we should be grateful the coaches didn’t get that though.

      In contrast Pres Schill has brought in $550M for academics, and the Trustees are throwing away money and bonds left and right. Not to mention the huge enrollment increase the IAAF Oregon21 championships are sure to bring in. So yeah it should be a good bargaining cycle for the faculty.

      BTW west coast urban inflation is only 2.8% this year: https://www.bls.gov/regions/west/news-release/consumerpriceindex_west.htm

      • thedude 12/03/2019

        So lets compare fund raising relative to raises over that time?

        My guess is percentages and levels, Gottfriedsen still did more to catch us up with peers.

        Just a reminder, under him our first contract was

        1.5 ATB (retroactive couple years
        1.5 ATB+2.0 Merit
        1.5 ATB + 4.0 Merit

        Two of those were retroactive so we ended up with two years in a row of 4.5 and 5.5 raises.

        Since then we had a couple years of 3.25 raises, and now 2.25 raises.

        The trend sucks. And if our next raises drop below 2.25, the union can take back my card and a lot of other people feel the same way.

  2. DTL 12/02/2019

    Hrm…. faculty suffering almost as much as classified?! OMG!

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