Things are looking grey in the Green Mountain State. Just as the full-time faculty at the University of Vermont declared impasse over negotiations for their second contract, the part-time faculty found themselves declaring  an impasse of their own—this one on their first contract.

The full-time faculty of United Academics/AFT/AAUP are facing three roadblocks with the administration: salary, benefits and workload. Job security is another sticking point.

"We're just a long way apart," says UA president David Shiman. The university offered a 2 percent salary increase for each of the three years of the contract; UA is asking for about 8 percent. Health benefits have never been negotiated, because the union's first contract, which expired in June, had to cover so many other issues. Negotiations center on increases in co-pays, reduced coverage and a general increase in costs for faculty as well as reduced benefits for retirees. Workload, the third prong of negotiations, is threatened by "enrollment creep," says Shiman, who cites the university's intent to boost the budget by increasing enrollment. "We see some indicators of classes increasing in size without increase in faculty," he says, adding that a trend toward more nontenure track and part-time hires could undermine the quality of education at UVM. Regarding job security, UA wants a renewal structure for lecturers whose contracts are currently limited to one year or one semester.

For part-timers, also members of the United Academics local but required by law to negotiate separately, job security is the primary issue. Unit members live in fear from semester to semester that they will not be rehired, reports Michele Patenaude, chief negotiator for part-time faculty, noting that the current system allows even veteran part-time faculty to be dismissed at any time for any reason. "We would like to focus on teaching and students, not on holding on to our jobs and finding the resources to do our jobs."

Most of the 85 members of UA's part-time unit have taught at UVM at least seven years; some have been there for 30. Fourteen teach a full-time load, but are kept out of the full-time unit because the administration does not count continuing education courses toward full-time status. Despite this, says Patenaude, the university treats part-timers as transient workers who are not dependent on university income and work to "earn a little extra money."

Part-timers also want to negotiate raises (pay has been frozen since 2002) and access to prorated benefits.

Since UA reached impasse, mediation was scheduled for late September for the full-time unit and expected to begin shortly after for the part-time unit. The last contract for full-time faculty was settled in mediation. [Virginia Myers Kelly]

September 20, 2005