Tomorrow, the most toxic legislative session in memory comes to an end when the two Sergeant-at-arms drop their handkerchiefs. The legislative supermajority isn't particularly enthusiastic about all the bad bills they are passing and may have gone along out of fear. We start with a review of what they did.
Whatever the motives, we are not resigned to be stage props in someone else's political theatre.
It's May again, and time for the annual...
And Happy Cinco de Mayo!
The USF Chapter of the United Faculty of Florida will meet tomorrow Friday at 11:30 pm on USF Tampa in EDU415 - and on Zoom. On the agenda: what happened this legislative session and what we are going to do about it. And here are the minutes for the previous meeting.
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.
Amidst the landslide of bad legislation are two bills that will impact then union and Florida higher education.
The primary policy-setting body of the statewide United Faculty of Florida is the Senate, and UFF President Andrew Gothard called an emergency meeting on Sunday after it became plain that Senate Bill 256 / House Bill 1445 was going to pass. Gothard sounded a Churchillian note, stating that, "Our Opposition hopes that we will splinter" in the face of the legislative mandates, but observing that "We have solidarity," vowed that UFF will emerge "the strongest that we have ever been." But first, we must deal with the legislative mandates.
The mandate that hits us first is the termination of payment of union dues by paycheck deduction, effective 1 July 2023. As of July 1, members must pay dues directly to UFF. Our state affiliate, the Florida Education Association - which has over 150,000 members in K-20 institutions - has arranged for a digital finance company to set up electronic dues payments from checking accounts.
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The other mandate is that each chapter - including the USF chapter - have as dues-paying members at least 60% of the employees that it represents (this percentage is called membership density). Most university chapters - including USF - must have enough dues-paying members by March 2024 (in March, 2003, USF "voluntarily" recognized UFF as the collective bargaining agent for the employees in the UFF USF Bargaining Unit). Since 35% of the UFF USF employees represented by UFF are dues-paying members, UFF must persuade an additional 25% to join by March. If the USF Chapter has not reached 60% membership density by March, UFF will no longer have legal standing to bargain contracts - just as the current contract is approaching the end of its lifetime. At this point, the UFF would seek "recertification" and faculty may remember 2003 as a bit of a zoo. The reality is that for those UFF USF employees who were content to let their colleagues pay for a union and to do its work, this is fish or cut bait time.
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And if you are not a UFF member, now is the time to join the movement.
The next chapter meeting will be tomorrow Friday, May 5, at 11:30 am (notice that it’s half an hour early) on USF Tampa campus in EDU 415 and on Zoom; for the Zoom link, contact the Chapter Secretary. All UFF USF employees are welcome.
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.