Prof’s Union to Board of Trustees: Approve ‘interim contract’

By a simple majority University Professionals of Illinois’ (UPI) union voted to ratify an interim contract. On Nov. 6 union members agreed to a tentative contract that includes a three percent “across the board” pay raise and continuation of the 2004-2008 contract language to be effective until Apr. 15, 2009. This will allow union members to have contract security that includes new money, until a new contract is settled, rather than depend on month-to-month continuations of the previous contract without new money. The later would have happened if the proposed ratification didn’t pass, as explained in a pamphlet handed out during the voting period. “The university must now bring the three percent increase and interim contract to the NEIU Board of Trustees for approval at the November 20 meeting,” said an e-mail sent to the Independent from the university’s UPI president Therese Schuepfer. This ratification can only be enacted with the approval of the Board of Trustees. Negotiations have been going on between the UPI and the administration team since May 2008 and “was trained in Interest Based Bargaining (IBB) by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service,” stated the pamphlet. “Our trust in one another waxes and wanes and it is clear that negotiations will progress only with the help of a facilitator,” the pamphlet read. The negotiation process was scheduled through the end of October, but as this pamphlet states, “it was clear that a contract settlement would not be reached by the end of December. The teams had met for more than 70 hours and only a few issues had been addressed and few tentative agreements (TA) had been signed.” Concerns were that this process was taking too long. “Many were troubled by the article in the Independent citing President Sharon Hahs’ statement that negotiated employees could expect the same three percent raise that others had received earlier this fall,” the pamphlet said. “Many were unhappy at what they perceived as the same delaying administrative strategy employed with the distribution of the 40 percent of the FY08 new money. It appeared to some that the delay was implemented to earn interest on the bargaining unit employees’ raises and furthermore, that the failure to release those funds might leave these dollars vulnerable to a statewide rescission demand.” The pamphlet explained there were two questions: one, would there be enough money to fund the increases; and two, whether traditional bargaining would be an option. The pamphlet went on to mention that the administrative side “acknowledged the membership’s concerns and agreed to use the IBB process to find a resolution.” The pamphlet explained that progress has been made but, ” Sessions have been productive but at times we have been at loggerheads.” “The [IBB] team discussed strategies to reduce the number of issues on the table as well as more efficient use of time spent brainstorming and creating contract language, On Oct. 17, a proposed resolution was reached after six hours of negotiating,” the pamphlet continued. In 2004, negotiations failed and resulted in a 19-day strike that started Nov. 19.