PrintProfessional staff win first contract
Three and a half years ago, professional staff at Vermont State Colleges had nothing. No performance reviews. No voice. No guaranteed job description or title, little job security, no grievance procedure and no assurance of fair pay.
Now, after voting for representation by the United Professions of Vermont, the AFT state federation, then forming Vermont State Colleges United and negotiating a first contract, they have a long list of gains and a clearer vision of procedures that were in practice but never standardized. VSCU represents 193 staff, including 63 supervisory and 130 professional administrative and technical staff.
For starters, says Jo Anne Edwards, executive vice president of VSCU, “the importance of having a voice cannot be underestimated.” After three years of negotiating, it is clear the administration is listening.
One of the most significant gains is the death of the annual contract, a system that made it possible for staff to be fired without a disciplinary procedure. The new contract requires just cause for discipline or discharge, with set procedures and a grievable final decision.
Equally impressive is a 16 percent pay raise—4 percent for each of four years, with two of those years retroactive.
Other important gains involve a 37.5-hour work week with flexibility, off-site or at-home work, overtime and comp time; outside employment, “exceedingly important,” says Edwards, as most staff hold second jobs to stay afloat; inclusion of grant-funded positions; equity adjustments; and a $40,000 professional development fund.
“These are just a few of the gains,” says Edwards, adding that staff lost only one policy—the colleges will now limit the number of sick days accrued to 150—and were denied only a few requests, including removal of old personnel files and comp time for salaried employees. For the most part, says Edwards, “This was a major victory. I think it’s an excellent contract. It’s making a big difference for us.”
Ambition: to pay off my student debt
Daena, criminal justice, Arizona State University Class of 2006. Expected debt upon graduation: $30,000. Ambition: buying her grandbaby a new dress.
Tiffany, sociology, Los Angeles City College. $40,000 debt. Ambition: helping troubled teens.
These are just two of the entries in a new twist on addressing soaring student debt. The Student Debt Yearbook, created by the Student PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups), humanizes the crippling cost of education with a sort of facebook. Alongside small portraits of the students are their answers to three questions:
- What are your nonacademic responsibilities while going to school?
- Why do you think students should not graduate with so much debt?
- What do you most look forward to when you graduate?
The “book,” found on the Web through studentdebtalert.org, gives new meaning to the statistics, found elsewhere on the site, showing that almost two-thirds of college grads carry student loans, and the number of those graduating with more than $25,000 in debt has tripled in the past 10 or 15 years.
The smiling faces in the debt yearbook are not only students—they are mothers and grandmothers, part-time and full-time employees, club presidents and college committee members. They are waitresses, tutors, lab assistants and tour guides. They want to be teachers, vets, social workers, law enforcement officers. They want to change the world.
And many of them are saddled with six figures of debt. Their ideas on why debt should not be part of graduation day perhaps illustrate the situation best. From Lindsey, Crystal and Sean, at Metro State College of Denver, the reasons students should not have to face debt upon graduation, taken directly from the yearbook:
“It cripples people in their career choices, forcing them into 40- to 70-hour work weeks.”
“The purpose of getting a degree is to increase your potential, but a large amount of debt doesn’t allow that to happen.”
“Because everyone deserves a chance at higher education.”
They had to move through a year of negotiations and an impasse that required mediation, but finally the full-time faculty at the University of Vermont have a three-year contract agreement. It is the second they’ve negotiated since forming the union in 2001.
United Academics/AFT/AAUP bargained a total of 16.25 percent in salary increases, in addition to raises that bring faculty up to minimums and reward them with promotions. The average annual increase is 5.42 percent.
All benefits that had been based in past practice for the first contract were negotiated this time. These include key provisions like new caps on out-of-pocket expenses for healthcare and retiree healthcare benefits.
The contract also features a more faculty-friendly grievance procedure, clarification on standard provisions like tenure, sabbatical and professional development funds, and unique protection for research faculty to bridge healthcare benefits when they are laid off pending new grants.
The contract was finalized after a year of talks and an impasse declared in September. On Dec. 6, 10 hours after union and university representatives met with a mediator (standard procedure at impasses), they agreed to terms the membership ratified on Dec. 16.
Part-time faculty, who belong to the same United Academics local but bargain separately, began the mediation process Dec. 14 with a grand sendoff rally that included full- and part-time faculty as well as representatives from New York’s United University Professions, standing in solidarity with their Vermont brothers and sisters. Major issues on the table include tiered seniority, health benefits and job security.
Negotiators hope the mediation will end favorably, rather than proceed to fact-finding, which would hold both parties to the fact-finder’s conclusions of fairness and compromise.
In other Vermont news, in December the Vermont State Colleges Faculty Federation celebrated a newly ratified amendment to the collective bargaining agreement that will protect a retirement incentive program recently threatened by the legislature.
