Grievance Over Chair Review Committee Recommendation Resolved

 On May 23, 2006 Akron-AAUP filed a grievance against the Administration regarding its rejection of chair review guidelines. On May 4, 2006, an administrative memo was circulated to several department chairs in the College of Arts and Sciences. The memo bore the subject line "Revisions to Department Chair Guidelines." We believe that this memo, which prohibited a chair review committee from making a recommendation with respect to the performance and reappointment of the chair, violated Article 10 (Governance), Sections 5A(3) and 5A(4) of the contract. As a result, Akron-AAUP filed a grievance seeking that the memo be withdrawn, that the contract be obeyed, and that approval of chair review guidelines not be withheld for the reasons identified in the grievance. On May 31, this grievance was successfully resolved as the Administration agreed with the Akron-AAUP's position that the chair review committee can indeed make a recommendation as to whether the chair should be retained or not, based upon its review of faculty evaluations.

If your department has already approved chair review guidelines that acquiesced to imposed limits on the chair review committee, you can now revisit those guidelines and allow that review committee its proper and full role in the process. 

From Linda Barrett, Akron-AAUP Grievance and Contract Administration Officer -

Much of my time as Grievance and Contract Administration Officer in the past month or so has been taken up with issues that arose because departments are working on three sets of guidelines:  merit, chair review, and RTP.   Many of the issues raised are still under discussion with the administration.  We have filed two formal grievances on these cases.  One grievance had to do with the administration’s insistence that for probationary faculty, merit guidelines must specify fixed weights for research, teaching, and service.  We have had one hearing for this grievance.

The second grievance had to do with a memo circulated in the College of Arts and Sciences that prohibited a chair review committee from making a recommendation with respect to the performance and reappointment of the chair.  In a meeting with the administration over this grievance, the administration has agreed with Akron-AAUP that the contract in fact allows the chair review committee to make such a recommendation. Several other issues have been raised with the administration informally.  We will continue to pursue these over the summer.

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

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Know Your Contract - No Strike No Lockout. 

Article 6 of our contract with the University (http://www.akronaaup.org/Contract/ctract.htm) specifies that during the life of the contract, faculty should not resort to a strike or sympathy strike to resolve problems. For its part, the University is obliged by this contract article not to lockout the faculty (i.e., prohibit them from working). The point of the contract is to provide a document that not only guarantees rights and obligations for both parties, but also guarantees means of resolving differences that arise. While Article 6 does limit the means by which faculty may express their discontent, the contract provides other ways of doing so. For faculty, these rights can include more collegial mechanisms for resolving differences, such as resolving potential grievances informally. If that does not work, faculty have the right to file a grievance,  and ultimately go to arbitration (note our recent winning of the grievance we filed about chair review guidelines). 
 
Under the contract, if a faculty member were to engage in a strike or sympathy strike, he or she would be in violation of the contract and could be subject to sanctions “up to and including dismissal.” The recent issue with adjunct faculty and the application of the small class formula to their summer pay is a good illustration. Faculty wrote or lobbied their Deans or the Provost for what they considered to be fair treatment of adjunct faculty. Other faculty attended the rally that adjunct faculty held to advocate their view on the small-class formula issue. However, calling for a sympathy strike in support of the adjunct faculty would have been a clear violation of our duties under Article 6, Section 2.

If you ever have a question regarding the contract, you should feel free to contact the Grievance and Contract Implementation Officer, Linda Barrett, or a member of the chapter’s Executive Committee. Contact Steve Aby at saby@uakron.edu
 

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House Bill 66 and Statewide Healthcare:

As mentioned in an earlier newsletter, the state legislature has budget legislation (HB66) mandating that all K-12 public school teachers be covered by a statewide healthcare plan.  This would be administered by a board of political appointees who would have the power to specify both the coverage and the costs of such a plan.  We also noted that it was possible that such a plan might be extended to cover higher education faculty as well.  Now, it appears that the legislature is investigating this very possibility.  For both K-12 teachers and higher education faculty, an imposed statewide healthcare plan would eliminate the ability of teachers and faculty represented by collective bargaining to bargain over healthcare. 

To read more about this development, you can go to www.handsoffourhealthcare.org or Google “hands off our health care.” 

The University of Cincinnati chapter of the AAUP has a resource page on this as well (http://www.aaupuc.org/handsoffhealth.htm), as does the Ohio Conference of the AAUP (http://www.ocaaup.org/index_files/HandsOff.htm).
 

Contact Steve Aby at saby@uakron.edu
 

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Adjunct Faculty Protest Wins Results

The Administration announced on Friday May 12 that Adjunct faculty would be paid on the small class formula starting this Summer session, which started the following Monday: i.e., they were given no notice!
In response to this last minute order, a group of adjunct faculty called for a boycott of all classes taught by adjuncts on Wednesday May 17, and a protest march at noon from Olin Hall to Buchtel Hall. They had great media coverage, (appearing in the Akron Beacon Journal three times: 5/16, 5/18, and 5/21), they solicited letters to the Administration, and we posted an announcement on the Akron-AAUP website (http://www.akronaaup.org).

Provost Stroble announced on Friday May 19 that the order to apply the small class formula to adjuncts would be rescinded for Summer I, and on June 1 announced in UA’s Email Digest that the small class formula would NOT apply to adjunct faculty during any term.  Akron-AAUP congratulates these brave adjuncts for standing up for their rights!

In the heat of helping to get the word out about the class boycott, one bargaining unit member spontaneously sent an email to a certain group of faculty saying that the class boycott included full-time faculty as well as adjuncts. This was a mistake, was never discussed with Akron-AAUP, and was corrected as soon as we heard about it. That is why you received a notice May 16 saying that bargaining unit faculty who cancelled class on May 17 would be in violation of our contract (Article 6, Section 2) and could be subject to discipline up to and including dismissal. 

One lesson to be learned from this experience: no faculty member should ever call on bargaining unit faculty to do anything like this without first referring to the contract and consulting the Akron-AAUP Executive Committee. We are familiar with the details of the contract, and we can tell you what you are and are not contractually bound to do. See “Know Your Contract” in this newsletter for details on Article 6. 

Contact Priscilla Sakezles at pks@uakron.edu
 

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FINAL 2005 – 2006 DUES PAYMENT NOW DUE
 

The third and/or final payment for 2005 – 2006 chapter dues is now due and payable.   Thanks to those who responded to the April 10, 2006 invoice and the subsequent e-mail reminder.  And for those still with unpaid balances your attention to the balance owing is appreciated -- the chapter has already paid the national portions of member dues.

2006 – 2007 Dues

Starting with the first paycheck for the 2006 -2007 academic year, you will be able to pay your dues by payroll deduction.  Note that those members who wish to conceal their membership in Akron-AAUP from the university administration will have the option of paying only the fair share portion of dues by payroll deduction, while paying the balance by check in the Fall semester directly to Akron-AAUP.  Details of electing a method of dues payment will follow in a future Newsletter and other correspondence. or your departmental liaison http://www.akronaaup.org/liaisons.htm  for details. 

Please direct any question regarding Akron-AAUP dues to Russ Davis, Akron-AAUP Treasurer at rdavis@uakron.edu or 330.972.7391

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

Akron-AAUP
Communications Committee

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