Negotiations enter clarification, justification phase

The negotiations process is on track and on schedule, with a productive first sit-down session completed between UUP and the state.

The UUP Negotiations Team conducted its clarification session with the state March 7. During that meeting, UUP team members explained the conceptual language in their proposal and gave the state a chance to ask questions.

“It was a productive session, and set the tone for what we hope will continue to be a good, cooperative effort,” said UUP Vice President for Academics Phillip Smith, the union’s chief negotiator. “UUP has made its goal very clear: to achieve an agreement that gives our members the conditions they need and deserve. Not just the best possible conditions, but the ones they have said that they need. We see no reason why we won’t accomplish that.”

The state expects to conduct its clarification session for UUP at a soon-to-be-scheduled meeting. Then both sides will conduct justification sessions, in which each offers an explanation of why it is seeking the conditions set out in its proposal.

The clarification and justification sessions are the latest steps in a negotiations process that got off to a formal start Feb. 14 when UUP and the state met to exchange proposals.

Amid some good-natured bantering that likened the mood that day to the optimism at the beginning of the baseball season, both sides struck a serious tone that reflected the enormity of what is at stake. For UUP, that is a contract that makes the needs of the SUNY faculty a priority during a time of fiscal crisis for the state.

Throughout the process, the UUP Negotiations Team is keeping in mind the concerns and wishes expressed by members in a series of campus visits last fall, Smith said.

“This is a democratic process, arguably the most democratic of any negotiations process to be found in the country,” Smith said. “We have listened to our members, and their concerns have formed the backbone of our proposal. Now we are ready to take those concerns to the bargaining table.”

Regular meetings will be scheduled throughout the spring to achieve a new contract. The current contract expires July 1.

— Darryl McGrath