Two weeks ago, the chief negotiators for the USF Chapter of the United Faculty of Florida (representing the employees in the UFF USF Bargaining Unit) and the USF Administration (representing the USF Board of Trustees) tentatively agreed to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). This proposed contract does not come into force unless and until ratified by both the employees of the UFF USF Bargaining Unit and the USF Board of Trustees, and since the semester is ending, both the UFF and the Administration are handling the logistics of the ratification process. All UFF USF employees, whether or not they are UFF members, are eligible to vote on ratification and are encouraged to do so.
But first of all...
Ratification. The procedure for UFF USF employees to vote on ratifying the contract will be announced as soon as possible. Stay tuned.
One correction in last week's report of the election results. The delegates representing USF at the Florida Education Association Delegate Assembly this coming year are Katherine Alfredo, Hossam Ashour, Karin Braunsberger, Steve Lang, John Lennon, Richard Manning, Greg McColm, LaSonya Moore, Cynthia Patterson, Steve Permuth, Frank Pyrtle III (alternate), and Arthur Shapiro. The Biweekly regrets the error.
Finally, April is the month for open enrollment in the Sick Leave Pool. If an employee who has been enrolled in the sick leave program for at least half a year gets seriously sick (with a documented illness) for long enough to exhaust all their leave, that employee can have access to sick leave from the pool. The sick leave program - like sick leave itself - is one of the benefits in the contract (see 17.8A on page 41). For information on the program, see the USF handout on the pool; to join the pool, submit an application to your Departmental A&L Coordinator.
The USF Chapter of the United Faculty of Florida will meet tomorrow Friday at 12 noon in EDU 261 on USF Tampa. On the agenda: the new contract, the recruiting effort, the summer meeting schedule, and more. And here are the minutes for the previous meeting.
This will be the last chapter meeting of the semester. Any employee in the Bargaining Unit may attend, but to Zoom in you must have an invitation: contact the Chapter Secretary to get one.
Meetings and events are posted on the Events Calendar of the UFF USF Website. Come and check us out.
The USF Chapter of the United Faculty of Florida will meet tomorrow Friday at 12 noon on Zoom. On the agenda: bargaining, the chapter election, academic freedom, and more. And here are the minutes for the previous meeting.
This semester, the chapter will meet on April 8 & 22, and May 5. Any employee in the Bargaining Unit may attend, but to Zoom in you must have an invitation: contact the Chapter Secretary to get one.
Meetings and events are posted on the Events Calendar of the UFF USF Website. Come and check us out.
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 litigation); 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. Here is the membership form. Come and join the movement.
If you have been the victim of a violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement or the recent Memorandum of Understanding, you have thirty days from the time you knew or should have known of the violation to file a grievance. If you are, and at the time of the violation were, a dues-paying member of the United Faculty of Florida, you have the right to union representation. To contact the UFF USF Grievance Committee, go to the Grievances Page.
Many of our students are struggling during this crisis, and the USF Foundation is supporting the USF Food Pantries to help out. They are accepting non-perishable donations, but one can also make monetary donations for the pantries at St. Petersburg, Sarasota / Manatee, and Tampa.
Yes, we are on social media.
This was an open book contract negotiation, i.e., the two bargaining teams took the old contract and proposed amendments, deletions, and adjustments. The result is a modification of the old contract. Here is the proposed contract with changes in red (additions underlined and deletions struck through). And here is the resulting draft.
Here is the list of the substantive changes. For each item, the article, section, or subsection is given at the beginning, then there is a very brief description, and finally there are the page numbers for the change in the draft with changes tracked, and then in the resulting draft.
Again, the procedure for UFF USF employees to vote on ratification will be announced shortly, so stay tuned.
The next chapter meeting will be tomorrow Friday, April 22, at 12:00, in EDU 261 on USF Tampa, or via Zoom. There will be sandwiches, fruit, soda, and sweets, and all UFF USF members are welcome: for the Zoom link, contact the Chapter Secretary.
All UFF members are invited to attend. Non-members are also invited to come and check us out. To get the link to Zoom, contact the Chapter Secretary. 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 or contacting the Chapter Secretary. If you do not receive the Biweekly, but want to, contact the Chapter Secretary.