Grievance and Contract Administration Officer  Linda Barrett

As Grievance and Contract Administration Officer, I meet regularly with the administration to discuss issues that arise with respect to implementation of the contract. Lately much of my discussion with them has centered around the merit guidelines and chair review guidelines that bargaining unit faculty are working on.    

For example, we have discussed the form that the chair review committee’s comments should take.  The contract says that “the evaluation process shall include the opportunity for individual bargaining unit faculty to make an anonymous…written qualitative and summary evaluation of the chair.  The committee’s recommendation shall include a summary of the individual bargaining unit faculty’s evaluations.”  Some disagreements have arisen with respect to the proper form of the committee’s comments, as specified in individual department guidelines.  One dean has circulated a memo stating that “The committee report … should not include a statement that the chair should be reappointed or not be reappointed.”  Many people have been wondering how the administration can make such a pronouncement.   

We questioned the administration on their objection.  As it turns out, the administration views guidelines that call for the committee to summarize answers to the question “Should this person be retained as chair?” as tantamount to a vote, which is something that the administration fought very hard to keep out of the contract.  However, they agree that the contract language clearly permits (in fact, mandates) the committee to summarize the evaluations of the chair’s performance.   Therefore, they agree that a performance-based summary evaluation of the chair is both encouraged and expected.  Guidelines should call for answering a question such as “Is this person doing a satisfactory job as chair?” 

Contact Linda Barrett at barrett@uakron.edu with questions about grievance and other contract implementation concerns.

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Past President and Nominations and Elections Chair  Steve Aby

Election News - Officer Elections - This April, the chapter is holding elections for the positions of Secretary and Treasurer.  Only chapter members are eligible to run for office and vote.  As you may remember, the chapter voted to alter the Constitution to allow for staggered elections for these positions and for President and Vice-President. 

Nominations for Secretary and Treasurer have closed, and mail ballots were sent to all chapter members, with a due date for return of Thursday, April 27.  

Candidate statements can be found at  http://www.akronaaup.org/AprilElection06/election06.htm.   Please vote and return your ballot in the stamped, addressed envelope or hand-deliver to Steve Aby’s campus office (as listed on the ballot).  Ballots will be counted Friday, April 28 at 10am in Bierce 178B; members are invited to come.  Election results will be circulated via email notification to chapter members, as well as on the web site.

      Departmental Liaison Elections – As a reminder, annual elections for the new departmental liaisons will be held in the early fall.  Chapter members will elect one of their own to be the departmental liaison.  All of the elected departmental liaisons will then elect two of their own to serve for one year as members of the chapter Executive Committee.           

Contact Steve Aby at saby@uakron.edu

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Treasurer Andrew Borowiec

Fair share fee implementation - Last month a significant majority of UA’s faculty voted to have a fair share fee paid by all members of the bargining unit to Akron-AAUP for its representation of the faculty for purposes of collective bargaining. The fair share fee is determined by independent audits of expenses by Akron-AAUP, national AAUP, the Ohio Conference of AAUP, and AAUP’s Collective Bargaining Conference. Non-union members will pay only the proportion of those expenses that is related to the contract. While union members pay fees equivalent to 0.75% of nine-month salary, non-union members of the bargaining unit will pay fair share fees of approximately 0.5% of nine-month salary, with an range of about 0.32% for a salary of $32,000 to 0.66% for a salary of $160,000.

       In accordance with Ohio employment law, the fair share fee will be automatically deducted from faculty pay checks, beginning with the first pay period of the 2006-07 fiscal year, i.e. September 30 for nine-month faculty and July 31 for twelve-month faculty. Union members who paid dues through August 31 will receive a rebate check from Akron-AAUP equivalent to the fair share fee deducted from their July and August pay checks.

     Union members will be able to opt for payroll deduction of full membership dues or to have only the fair share portion deducted, with the balance to be paid to Akron-AAUP by check by October 1, 2006. The latter option guarantees that union membership will not be revealed to the administration.

     Since the difference between fair share fees and full union dues is only 0.2%,  or about $14 a month for an average salary of $65,000, it is important to consider what that additional $14 gets you. Full membership in Akron-AAUP includes the right to vote in chapter elections and other union matters such as contract ratification. As a union member, you will have the opportunity to serve on committees, run for office, and be on the next negotiation team, thereby directly participating in decisions that affect your future at UA.

      For further information about membership, please contact chapter treasurer Andrew Borowiec at borowiec@uakron.edu or any other member of the Executive Committee.

Vice President Priscilla Sakezles

This has been a grueling semester for everyone, with all the guideline revisions required to make department procedures consistent with the contract. The Administration is asking for all these revisions because now that we finally have a contract, both sides must abide by every detail — it is legally binding upon us all. This revision process should be a one-time event, and is painful but necessary, and actually a manifestation of our success as a union. No longer can the rules change with every change of Chair, Dean, or Provost.

      A note on deadlines: Faculty should work with all deliberate speed to get these revisions done as soon as practically possible. However, do not sacrifice quality for speed. You are revising guidelines that will be binding for the future, so this is a serious task. The contract does not specify any deadlines for completion of these tasks, and the Administration cannot impose their own guidelines upon you if you fail to meet their deadlines.

Both sides must negotiate until this is done, and if you reach an impasse with your Chair/Dean/Provost and believe their demands are unreasonable, you should contact our Grievance Officer Linda Barrett (lbarrett@uakron.edu).

If you are threatened in any way throughout this process, contact us immediately - we have been pursuing grievances and are already seeing results. 

Contact Priscilla Sakezles at pks@uakron.edu

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Akron-AAUP Webmaster John Reeves

 The Akron-AAUP web site has received quite a workout over the last several months.  It was expected that we’d have a lot of activity at the time of the contract ratification vote, and again just before and after the recent fair share referendum.  Now we’re seeing more activity on various informational pages as we come up on the deadlines for merit and chair review guidelines, modifications of RTP procedures, as well as the current election of chapter officers.  What’s surprising is the origin of many of these visits.  We’ve had hits from Ventura, California to Hagerstown, Maryland and Washington, D.C.; from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Tampa Bay, Florida; from Mexico, Canada and even some repeat visitors from Katmandu, Nepal and New Delhi, India--even one from Pago Pago in American Samoa.  Akron-AAUP and the University of Akron have drawn the attention of a world-wide audience, it seems.  A little research has revealed that at least some of our visitors are from U.S. campuses with no AAUP chapter, or with a chapter but no collective bargaining representation.  Others are in various stages of contract negotiations.

      There are several previous incarnations of the website occupying niches on our server and in the coming months we’re going to start bringing much valuable information back for easy access—Who knows but that some of our colleagues elsewhere may find our collective experience with the card campaign, the unionization vote, our protracted period of contract negotiations, the issue of fair share, etc., useful in their situations.

      Meanwhile, you’ll find on our site statements from candidates for chapter offices, FAQ’s on and examples of merit and chair review guidelines, suggestions for what to do if you think you may have a grievance, texts of various court decisions pertaining to your rights and much more.  Suggestions are always welcome.  Contact John here.

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An Announcement from Chapter President John Hebert -

I am pleased to announce to the Akron-AAUP Chapter membership that our Past President – Steve Aby, along with Dave Rubin from the University of Cincinnati were recently recognized by the OHIO AAUP Conference as the 2006 co-recipient of the Robert E. Kennedy Award for Academic Freedom.

The Robert E. Kennedy Award for Academic Freedom was established by the Ohio Conference AAUP to recognize individuals who, in a given year or over time, have made significant contributions to the cause of academic freedom. Please join with me and the other members of the Akron-AAUP Executive Committee in congratulating Steve Aby for this well-deserved recognition of his dedication and efforts to preserve Academic Freedom – not only at the University of Akron, but throughout the State of Ohio and across the nation as well. 

Contact John Hebert at jhebert@uakron.edu

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The quality of your academic life depends on a good contract.

Support yourself, and your colleagues, by becoming a member.

Akron-AAUP
Communications Committee

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