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Welcome to the Florida International University Chapter of the United Faculty
of Florida. UFF-FIU provides many services to it members. Follow the links
in the menu on the left to access contract information, application forms
and contact information for the officers.
Recent News
Report on the BOT Meeting
Address to the BOT
United Faculty of Florida, UFF, represents the faculty and librarians of FIU.
In April, UFF sent each of you a report about how FIU spends its money. Last week, members of this Board called it “inaccurate” and “subjective.”
More...
Letter to the Unit
The voice of the faculty of Florida International University was heard by the FIU administration, and perhaps equally important, by the FIU Board of Trustees!
Our message, articulated in the UFF Reports “How FIU Spends Its Money,” was loud and clear:
no more program closures until administrative overhead is brought under control.
More...
How does FIU spend its money?
Dear Bargaining Unit Members,
The UFF Teach-in on “How FIU Spends Its Money” went very well today. If you were unable to attend, the report is attached. We are disseminating this information because we think it is important for all FIU faculty to understand our administration’s priorities, especially within the context of the ongoing budget crisis.
What our reports show is that the FIU administration has been shifting personnel and resources away from the faculty who do the teaching, research, and service that constitute the University’s mission. No matter how conservatively we analyze the data, the University has been increasing both the total numbers (98.6% over a 6 year period) and total salaries (106.1% over that period) of administrators relative to faculty (.5%; 10.7% respectively). Even when tuition and student fees increased by 57.7% funds have been steered away from students and those who are directly responsible for the academic mission of this University.
I urge you to read this report carefully. As we approach the difficult process of reorganization, program closures, and potential layoffs, please keep in mind that the FIU administration could make different choices in the face of budget shortfalls that do no more harm to the academic infrastructure and mission of this University.
Please feel free to email me or Bruce Nissen for further information or questions regarding this report.
If you are not yet a member of UFF JOIN UFF-FIU NOW!
Leslie
Teach Ins
Where Does FIU Spend Its Money?
The UFF-FIU chapter is sponsoring a
Teach-In on April 14 in GC 243 at 12 noon. The topic of the teach-in will be the FIU Expenditures on Faculty and Higher Level Administration during
the last six years. Free subs and soft drinks for the first forty attendees.
More...
The Economic Crisis
The UFF-FIU chapter sponsored a
Teach-In on the Economic Crisis, Wednesday, March 11.
We know that interest in and confusion about
the economic melt-down is high, and we thought we could tap the
collective wisdom of the union to address the issue for the benefit of
all. We presented a panel of faculty with expertise in finance,
economics, labor studies and political and international affairs to
initiate the discussion, and then encouraged those in
attendance--faculty, students, and staff--to ask questions, make
comments, and discuss.
More...
Spring Chapter Meeting
The Spring Chapter meeting was held on Thursday, 2/26 in Wertheim Conservatory on UP and LIB 155 on BBC. There were cameras and microphones at each site, so that faculty from each campus could communicate with each other.
More photos...
Congratulations to the new officers.
President: Leslie Frazier
VP for UP: Ben Baez
VP for BBC: Lauren Christos
Treasurer: Jim Crosby
Sectretary: Amy Paul-Ward
Congratulations to the new senators and alternates.
Ben Baez + FEA delegate
Joan Baker + FEA delegate
Len Bliss
Lauren Christos + FEA delegate
John Clark
Peter Craumer
Tim Downey
Alan Gummerson + FEA delegate
Florence Keane
Teresa Lucas
Carmela McIntire
Glenda Musoba
Bruce Nissen
Joseph Patrouch
Gene Rosenberg
Ray Scattone + FEA delegate
Lorna Veraldi + FEA delegate
Paul Warren
Kathleen Wilson + FEA delegate
Hassan Zahedi
Plamer Graves
Tometro Hopkins
Brian Raue
Ibrahim Tansel
M.O. Thirunarayanan
Leadership Workshops
A big thanks to Bruce Nissan for his extraordinary teaching and facilitating the mechanics of organizational power-building
in the leadership workshop that was held on January 14.
Budget Crisis
Grim economic realities:
By now many of you have seen the official state budget deficit that Lawmakers need to cover -- slightly more than $2.3 billion through the end of June 2009 -- the end of this fiscal year. Unofficially it has been reported that December tax collections fell $100 million below estimates. The outlook is grim.
The Florida Education Association (FEA) and United Faculty of Florida (UFF) priority for this special session was to stay within the holdback amount (4%) the Governor recommended last fall. The legislature kept the budget cuts at or below the holdback.
Nevertheless, Higher Education is again feeling the effects of Florida's budget crisis. There are reports of impending layoffs at Florida State University. FSU Provost Larry Abele said that they will "lay off about 200 employees because of a cumulative $65 million budget cut." more...
Collective Bargaining Fall 2008
Dear Members of the UFF Collective Bargaining Unit:
UFF and the FIU administration have reached an agreement on a new
Collective Bargaining Agreement for 2008-2011.
View the Final Verion of the Bargaining Agreement for 2008-2011.
The UFF bargaining team and the Board of Trustees/Administration have
agreed to salary raises and one-time bonuses totaling 3.5%.
Of this amount, 2.0% Retention Raises will go to all eligible employees
in the bargaining unit effective December 28, 2008. Eligible employees
are defined as those who were employed as of the beginning of Spring 2008
and remain employed as of the effective date of the increase and who
received at least a satisfactory evaluation in their most recent annual
evaluations. more...
New Grievance Policy
The United Faculty of Florida (UFF), the union that represents the faculty and librarians at FIU, has voted in favor of a change in policy at its recent statewide UFF Senate meeting.
AS OF NOVEMBER 4,2008 THE UNION WILL NO LONGER PROVIDE INDIVIDUAL GRIEVANCE REPRESENTATION TO NON-MEMBERS.
Unlike many other unions, UFF has in the past offered grievance representation to all bargaining unit members, whether or not they have chosen to join the union and pay membership dues. To help offset the costs of grievance representation, in the past UFF has required non-members merely to share the costs of taking their grievances to arbitration. However, because our state affiliate has informed UFF that it cannot provide legal support to UFF when it represents non-members, UFF is unable to continue to provide representation to non-members.
Therefore, as of November 4th, unless you are a member of UFF at or before the time of any incident that violates your rights under the BOT-UFF Collective Bargaining Agreement, UFF will not represent youin your grievance. As always, you will have a right to represent yourself or to hire an attorney to represent you. And, just as you cannot obtain an insurance policy after an accident happens, you cannot obtain union representation in a grievance over something that happened before you were a member by joining the union after the incident that violates your contract rights and leads to the grievance occurs.
As has always been the case, non-members are not entitled to the $1 million insurance policy that covers liability for work-related lawsuits or claims against a faculty member. This has always been another important protection offered automatically to UFF members and paid for by their dues.
As before, it is the choice of an individual faculty member or librarian as to whether or not to join UFF. However,because that choice now means the individual is opting out of a right to have the assistance of trained UFF grievance representatives, the union feels it is important for all faculty members and librarians to be notified of our new policy.
If you have any questions on the new policy feel free to email me (Leslie Frazier) or Paul Warren, our grievance chair (Paul Warren).
Yours,
Leslie
Leslie D. Frazier
Chapter President
United Faculty of Florida
Petition for TA's and RA's
We're writing to ask you to sign and circulate an online petition urging Senators and Representatives to co-sponsor new breakthrough legislation, the Teaching and Research Assistants Collective Bargaining Rights Act.
This Obama-co-sponsored federal legislation would guarantee TA's and RA's at private universities and colleges the right to unionize and have the same say over their pay, working conditions and benefits that our colleagues at public universities have enjoyed for years.
The petition is available at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/TA_rights/.
Because the Teaching and Research Assistants Collective Bargaining Rights Act
is federal legislation, ANYONE -- regardless of citizenship or voter
registration status -- can sign so please forward the URL to all of your
listserves.
The Teaching and Research Assistants Collective Bargaining Rights Act has
already gained the support of many powerful legislators, including Senator Ted
Kennedy, Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama, and Senator Hillary
Clinton.
International opinion is also on our side. This summer, the International Labor
Organization, an agency of the United Nations, reaffirmed TA's and RA's
internationally recognized right to form unions.
While this legislation has congressional and public attention in these short
days before the election, we need to capitalize on its current momentum. This
is not, by any means, a done deal.
To ensure that the Teaching and Research Assistants Collective Bargaining
Rights Act passes in Congress and becomes federal law, please:
* Sign and Circulate the Online Petition! Go to:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/TA_rights/.
* Get more involved! Please email
GSOC or call 212-529-2580
and ask to speak to a GSOC member.
Letter to the Administration
United Faculty of Florida
Florida International University
April 17, 2008
President Modesto Maidique CERTIFIED/RRR
Florida International University
University Park Campus
Miami, FL 33199
Dear President Maidique
Following the recent Town Hall Meeting, it is clear the University is considering program closures, reorganizations and lay-offs in response to the anticipated budget cuts. As you know, it is essential that all those involved in the process, including FIU administrators, deans and chairs, be fully aware of the role of UFF and the rights of employees who may be affected by layoffs. Most important are the provisions of the BOT-UFF Collective Bargaining Agreement, Article 8, Layoff and Recall. more...
Salary Study
Members of the Faculty Collective Bargaining Unit,
As you probably know, we are still engaged in bargaining salary increases for the 2006-2007 academic year (in addition to the 3% voted by the legislature effective October 1, 2006). The administration (representing the Board of Trustees) is offering little, on the grounds that the budget is very tight, both this year and next. We decided that the matter deserved some study, so we contracted with the Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy, led by Dr. Bruce Nissen, lodged in the Center for Labor Research and Studies here at FIU, to do a follow-up to the study Dr. Nissen did for us in 2004.
The report, "Where Does the Money Go? FIU Expenditures on Faculty and Higer Level Administration in the Period from 2002--3 to 2005-06" can be downloaded from here: Download. It finds, among other interesting facts, that the number of administrators at FIU continued to increase significantly, while the number of faculty actually declined, despite the fact that tuition and fees have increased over 30% during the period studied. FTE teaching workloads have increased significantly during the same time.
The study concludes that the data reveal the true priorities of FIU, namely favoring administrators at the expense of faculty. "Students are being asked to provide ever greater amounts of money to be educated by a faculty that is both stretched ever-more thinly and provided relatively fewer of the institutions resouces."
Take a look. I think you will find the study both sound and enlightening.
This is a good example of your UFF dues money at work. If you have not yet joined UFF, an application form can be downloaded at Membership Form
Alan
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