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UFF Biweekly
United Faculty of Florida -- USF System Chapter
22 March 2012
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ANNOUNCEMENTS

TOMORROW IN SARASOTA / MANATEE

The UFF USF Chapter will meet tomorrow Friday at USF Sarasota / Manatee, at 12 noon in B226. This is part of the Chapter's policy to visit every campus at least once a semester. The building is on 8350 N. Tamiami Trail in Sarasota, FL 34243. To get there, see the driving directions and the campus map.

CONTRIBUTE TO UFF PAC!

UFF needs your help to fight for you in Tallahassee. We need to help reasonable candidates get elected this fall, and we need to build relationships with legislators we will be dealing with next spring. Thanks to the U. S. Supreme Court, that means campaign contributions. But DUES MONEY DOES NOT GO TOWARDS CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS. So the UFF Political Action Committee needs donations! Download, fill in, and mail the PAC paycheck deduction form to contribute a few dollars out of each paycheck towards the PAC fund. We need all the pull in the legislature that we can get.

JOIN UFF TODAY!

Download, fill in, and mail the membership form. Benefits of membership include the right to run and vote in UFF chapter and statewide elections; representation in grievances (UFF cannot represent a non-member in a grievance or future litigation); greater opportunities for influencing the bargaining agenda; special deals in insurance, travel, legal advice, and other packages provided by our affiliates; free insurance coverage for job-related liability; and the knowledge you are supporting education in Florida. And if you join now, you will get a $ 100 rebate dues rebate after a term. Come and join the movement.

WATCH OUT FOR ELECTION ANNOUNCEMENT

The union is a representative democracy, and it's election time. Dues-paying UFF members are encouraged to vote in this election for:

  • The president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. These are four of the six members of the Executive Committee (the others being the appointed chairs of the Bargaining and Grievance committees) of the UFF USF Chapter.
  • UFF Senators. USF is represented by 23 senators at the UFF senate, the policy-setting body of the UFF.
  • FEA Delegates. UFF is itself a union local in the Florida Education Association, and USF elects seven of the delegates representing UFF in the FEA Assembly, which is the primary policy-setting body of the FEA.
We will be announcing election procedures very soon, so UFF members (who can and should vote) stay tuned. And if you aren't a member, join today so you can vote in next year's election!

IN THIS ISSUE

THE LEGISLATIVE HURRICANE. It seems that hurricane season comes in spring nowadays, spiraling out of Tallahassee and sweeping over the state. This year's hurricane was predominately financial, hitting public institutions and handing the public treasure to private interests. And what happens next spring depends a lot on what happens this fall.

  • Some Outcomes of the Session. If there was a theme for this session, it was For Sale, Cheap! Public Property and Legislators Galore! For top items, see below.
The bills that passed are heading towards the governor's desk, and if you would like to tell the governor what you think about legislation he may or may not sign, you may contact him with your personal phone or personal computer using contact information posted on his official web-page; remember that it is not legal to use state machines to lobby politicians.

ARTICLES

SOME OUTCOMES OF THE SESSION

The biggest news was probably that USF was cut "only" $ 50 million, our share of the $ 300 million cut to the universities. Reducing the original $ 128 million cut by more than half was a major accomplishment of Tampa Bay and the USF community, including its faculty, professionals and students, who loudly supported USF through the United Faculty of Florida and the student government.

And the legislature passed a hastily thrown together bill that would shut down USF Polytechnic and create, staff, and accredit a whole new Florida Polytechnic University with recurring funds from ... well, they'll let future legislatures worry about that. Once again, pressure from UFF and the local communities won our half-loaves: USF gets transitional expenses, and USF faculty and students have some protections. The bill is awaiting Scott's signature.

That isn't all that happened. Here are some other items.

  1. The Drug Free Workplace Act empowers state agencies (according to the senate analyst) or maybe public employers (according to the house analyst) to conduct random drug tests on employees. (USF, by the way, is a public employer.) Amendments to make legislators and the cabinet subject to this law died in committee. The governor signed the bill, but the only thing for certain is that it will lead to a lot of litigation.
  2. Ethical Requirements for Public Officers was a warm and fuzzy title for a bill proposed by Senator John Thrasher to prevent university people - like USF faculty Bill Heller and Charlie Justice - from running for the legislature. FEA fought this bill and won.
  3. Parent Empowerment in Education, a.k.a. the Parent Trigger, and the Charter Schools bills were pushed by many corporate organizations to make it easier for their sponsors to establish charter schools and to siphon public education money to those schools. FEA opposed these bills, which died in committee.
  4. Privatization of Correctional Facilities was not only a political test of the legislative leadership's ability to abandon public institutions, it was also a test of the new Labor Table alliance formed to fight these bills. The defeat of Senate Bill 2038 not only assured that prisoners in Florida would remain in state custody (and not Jim & Joe's Prison & Camp Company), but also that a high priority item could be defeated.
  5. State Retirement. One of the thousand cuts the legislative leadership tried to inflict on our pension system, this "requiring new employees to, by default, be enrolled in the investment plan" (according to the bill's official description), thus undermining the long-term soundness of the Florida Retirement System defined benefits plan. FEA opposed the bill, and it died in committee.
  6. Student Member of Board of Governors. After SUS Board of Governors student member Michael Long of New College had the audacity to represent student interests during the debate over USF Polytechnic, the Senate voted 37 – 3 to put on the fall ballot a referendum for a constitutional amendment stating that henceforth, the governor shall appoint a ... team player ... to be the student "representative" on the board. This referendum does not require the governor's signature.
  7. The Teachers bill was actually intended to assist the Professsional Educators Network (PEN), which is not so much a threat as a plaintiff in waiting. PEN does not bargain or enforce contracts, but the bill requires that PEN be treated as if it was a real union. FEA opposed the bill, and it died in committee.
  8. Wage Protection for Employees. Not one we'd have to worry about, but an indicator of how bad the situation is in Tallahassee. The state has been negligent in enforcing laws against wage theft, i.e., employers simply not paying employees their salaries. Local governments picked up the slack, much to the irritation of numerous business groups, which (for whatever reason) (and this being Florida, we can imagine) supported a bill that would have prohibited "a county, municipality, or political subdivision from adopting or maintaining in effect a law, ordinance, or rule that creates requirements, regulations, or processes for the purpose of addressing wage theft." The unions opposed this bill (remember, the unions were functioning as an alliance) and it died in committee.
Many thanks to UFF Executive Director Ed Mitchell and FEA Higher Education Advocate Pat Dix for their hard work this legislative session – and to those faculty and professionals whose union dues pay Professor Mitchell's and Professor Dix's salaries (yes, they are both former professors).

Incidentally, another bill (on Retirement) reduces the state's contribution to state and public employee ORP retirement plans, and FEA has asked their lawyers – the same lawyers fighting last year's bill to require state and public employees to "contribute" to their pensions – to look at options. Union dues pay the lawyers' fees as well. The governor has yet to sign this one, and if you have any opinion about whether or not he should, his contact information is on his official web-page, but remember to use personal phones or computers to send emails or call.

LOGISTICS

Next Chapter Meeting tomorrow Friday, 12 noon, in B226 on USF Sarasota / Manatee.

Sandwiches & sodas for lunch are provided by the union, and all UFF members are invited to attend. Non-members are also invited to come and check us out. Come and join the movement.

Membership: Everyone in the UFF USF System Bargaining unit is eligible for UFF membership: to join, simply fill out and send in the membership form.

NOTE: The USF-UFF Chapter website is http://www.uff.ourusf.org, and our e-mail address is uff@ourusf.org.

About this broadcast: This Newsletter was broadcast from uff.ourusf.org, hosted at ICDsoft.com, and is intended for all members of the UFF USF Bargaining unit (USF faculty and professionals at most departments). A (usually identical) version will be broadcast to USF-News and USF-Talk from mccolm@usf.edu.

If you do not want to receive the UFF Biweekly, you can unsubscribe below. If you do not receive the Biweekly, but want to, e-mail a message to mccolm@usf.edu.