Dear Colleagues,
I hope that everyone enjoyed the winter break from classes. As the spring semester gets underway and people are back on campus, I wanted to provide members with a few updates and some reminders of upcoming Union events.

Salary Increases & PTL/OCE stipends
The second 4% salary increase from last July’s negotiations will appear in the February 2 pay for those members who were rated as Recommended or Highly Recommended in last year’s annual evaluations. 
The stipend minima for PTLs will also increase by another 4% for the Spring ’24 semester; the Federation was able to get this as a part of the salary increase negotiations in July. This also increases the stipend for teaching OCE courses since the Administration agreed with the Federation’s proposal during bargaining that the OCE stipends should be the same as the PTL stipend minima for teaching a “day” course, and that full-time faculty teaching an OCE course would be paid at the highest PTL rate. With the 4% increase applied, the PTL & OCE stipend minima will be $2096 per teaching unit for Spring 2024. However, please be aware that the Administration is not increasing the stipend for full-time faculty teaching ad comp courses in the “day” school, and they are using a rate of $1444/unit. Unfortunately, the Federation has a very limited ability to contest the University’s position on this matter. Compensated overloads are, by definition, extra contractual which means that there are no rights granted by the contract that can be asserted by members. Faculty can, of course, refuse to teach the extra contractual course for the stipend being offered — this would provide more opportunities for PTLs. Also, the Dean’s Office can always agree to pay more than what HR is insisting is the rate for ad comp teaching.

Contract Negotiations
The Federation will be back at the bargaining table with the Administration sometime later this semester. The Union is still waiting for HR and the Provost’s Office to review the new CBA which includes all of the changes that were ratified by the membership. Hopefully this review will be completed shortly and the CBA can then be distributed to the membership. Once this is done, a call for proposals on changes to the CBA will be put out to all the members of the Faculty Federation.

Spring Events
Please save the date for upcoming Federation events. The first coffee with the Federation leaders will be at 9:30 am on Thursday, February 29 in the Federation Conference Room (VIOLETTE RESEARCH 221) and the Federation’s annual Spring Fling will be on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 27. I hope that you are able to attend these events.
Later this semester, the Union will be hosting a meeting with junior faculty to review the appointment renewal and promotion processes. There have been some changes in how these are done as a part of the new CBA that people need to be aware of.

In Solidarity!