A Statement by UFF USF President Arthur Shapiro to the USF Board of Trustees

Chairman Weatherford, President Law, BOT Members, and Colleagues,

Thank you for the opportunity to represent the views of the UFF in support of negotiations for a continuing Collective Bargaining Agreement, something that USF and UFF have had for decades. Obviously, good business that spends millions of dollars deserves a good contract. UFF would like the CBA to be exemplary and the best in Florida.

Currently, UF is in court and a public debate over faculty rights while UCF has almost daily newspaper articles about hidden monies. Are those the directions that USF wants to go?

Here’s a short timeline:

• The current CBA expired on December 31, 2020.
• Negotiations were to begin no later than August 1, 2020.
• The first bargaining session occurred on December 11, 2020 (almost a year ago). UFF presented 24 article proposals.
• The next bargaining session was held on July 9, 2021 where the USF BOT presented proposals (seven months after UFF’s proposals).
• A session was held on August 20, 2021. An offer of a 2% bonus was withdrawn.
• One session was postponed by USF.
• The latest session was held on November 5, 2021. UFF has now presented 30 proposals; USF has presented one "package proposal-take it or leave it" of 1% based on Annual Evaluations – and all other offers depend USF’s discretion. There has been no discussion or response to UFF’s proposals.

UFF has negotiated these contracts with USF for decades, and improved the Collective Bargaining Agreement to meet the changing times, economy, and changing university. UFF was able to negotiate a ratified MOU in response to the COVID19 crisis.

UFF is legally representing faculty per the Constitution of Florida. I just wanted to say that the current representatives from USF are slow in making proposals, and are unresponsive to any of our proposals, and UFF members are increasingly vocal on the lack of response by the USF team.

UFF’s proposals are aimed at reasonable issues in a university changing due to distance learning, summer programming, accreditation, family rights, analytics, consolidation, equity, faculty assignments, and outside employment. USF employees also deserve more compensation – they have worked tirelessly to move this institution’s ranking and metrics forward – and that work was done mostly by faculty! It is past time to bargain a contract that UFF can put in front of our faculty for their vote.

Other faculty issues:

Without rehashing the issues of closing the College of Education, selling the Forest Preserve, and building a football stadium; decisions by the USF Administration and BOT that affect the University are of concern to our members, and they continue to support their union and Faculty Senate to make transparent decisions that are well-founded – not impulsive mandates or internal changes based on misleading perspectives.

The USF administration is well aware that UFF has regular meetings with the President’s Representatives (as spelled out in the CBA) in order to reach informal resolutions and to resolve issues of mutual concern. In fact, most of the UFF proposed article changes to the CBA directly resulted from those meetings. Again, it is simply wrong to avoid getting a contract that could be the best in the state – a model of clear language for the employees that rewards their efforts.

UFF has entered into agreements to form committees in past contracts to explore faculty evaluation, and inventions/works. The package proposal has not addressed some of the topics that continue to come up at our informal meetings or even to explore ways that problems can be solved.

UFF stands ready to negotiate in good faith, and reach an agreement that faculty can support. I hope you all have a happy and healthy holiday season. Thank you for the opportunity to present our perspective.