Negotiations update: UUP crafting proposal

The UUP Negotiations Team has wrapped up its whirlwind tour of chapter visits and has settled down to the task of crafting a collective bargaining proposal that meets the needs of the membership.

The Negotiations Team and Negotiations Committee met in early November to review the information collected during face-to-face discussions with members and through consultations with the chapters’ ad-hoc advisory committees charged with gathering information specific to their campuses.

“This was the first opportunity for the team and committee to review information gathered from members,” UUP Chief Negotiator Phillip Smith said of the joint, three-day work session in Bolton Landing. “Our members have told us what they want and now we can begin to analyze the information.”

Union negotiators will be guided by the results of a membership survey to assist them in preparing a package of proposals to present to the state at the bargaining table. More than 5,750 surveys were returned to the union either by mail or electronically, according to Smith, statewide vice president for academics. The six-page survey — distributed to all UUPers earlier this fall — gave members the opportunity to comment on salary, benefits, facilities and resources, clinical practice, and part-time issues.

Using survey responses and information collected during campus visits, team and committee members split into subcommittees to review the concerns shared by members and to consider how they can be addressed during negotiations. Two team members and at least two committee members were on each of the nine subcommittees.

The union expects to exchange formal proposals with the state in February 2003. UUP’s current contract expires July 1, 2003.

“I remain confident that we can convince the state and SUNY administrators that we need a strong, engaged faculty to make our university the flagship institution it should be,” Smith said. “After all — in view of our state’s and nation’s knowledge-driven economy — an educated workforce and vital educational institutions are the engines that will power the solutions to New York’s short- and long-term economic problems.”

— Karen L. Mattison