Bargaining a New Contract

We are bargaining the successor of the 2021 – 2024 Collective Bargaining Agreement (the current contract) which was suppose to be replaced by August 7, 2024. Here are the bargaining reports and proposals. “UFF” refers to materials presented by the United Faculty of Florida, representing employees in the UFF USF Bargaining Unit, while “BOT” refers to materials presented by the USF Administration, representing the USF Board of Trustees. The number in front of “UFF” or “BOT” refers to the number times that team has presented proposals as of that date; notice that the BOT team has not been proposing very much.

As we bargain, the chairs of the bargaining teams (aka, “chief negotiators”) tentatively agree (“TA”) to articles in the contract. Once an entire new contract has TA’d, it is presented to the employees of the UFF USF Bargaining Unit and to the USF Board of Trustees for ratification; the new contract is ratified and comes into force if and only if both the employees and the board vote in favor of ratification. As of now, the number of articles TA’d is: 0.

The Next Bargaining Session is on Friday, at 12 noon, on USF Tampa in SVC 2070, following the 10 am Townhall. All USF faculty are encouraged to attend to support the home team. Those who cannot come in person can watch the stream.

2026

March 13

Both sides agreed to Article 8 on Appointment, locking promotional raises in place.

Proposals: UFF proposed Article 6 on Nondiscrimination and a new article on Bullying. The BOT asked to adjust the already tentatively agreed to Article 1 on Recognition and at last responded to UFF’s proposals with counters on Article 20 on Grievances, Article 23 on Salary, and adjusting Article 29 on Duration.

February 13

Still no BOT response to UFF proposals of December, but both sides tentatively agreed to Article 1 on Recognition, Article 3 on UFF Privileges, Article 7 on Minutes, Rules and Budgets, and Article 25 on Payroll Deduction.

January 16

Both sides had agreed to respond to each other’s proposals, but for some reason, the BOT team had NO responses to the UFF proposals of last December. Nevertheless, we did get Article 7 on Minutes, Rules and Budgets and Article 25 on Payroll Deduction tentatively agreed to.

UFF presented proposals on Article 3 on UFF Privileges, Article 8 on Appointments, and Article 9 on Assignment.

2025

December

UFF and the BOT “tentatively agreed” to continue the status quo on Articles 2, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21 (already tentatively agreed to, but anyway), 22, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30, and 31. That got most of the contract done; on to the rough stuff.

Proposals: UFF proposed adding non-sexual harassment to Article 6, more work on Article 20, and a $6,000 raise in Article 23. The BOT made proposals on Articles 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 20, 23, 25, 29, and Appendices D and F.

November

UFF proposed some Ground Rules, which the BOT team agreed to and which both sides signed. And:

Bargaining Updates: The update prior to the November bargaining session and the update after the bargaining session
Proposals: UFF proposed that both teams tentatively agree to the language of the current contract (aka, “status quo”)
except for salary and promotional raises.

BOT: