Brief Report of UFE Third Bargaining Session, April 15, 2008

Last Wednesday, April 9, the UFE Bargaining Team sat down for the third time with the administration’s representatives, who came prepared with an overall, but fairly detailed, response to the proposal we had put on the table at our March 3 session. Their response included initial estimates of what they saw to be the direct and indirect costs of UFE proposals on wages, parity, workload, changes in benefits, professional development and other matters.

The UFE Bargaining Team focused on two principal objectives: first, to reach a clear understanding of the administration’s thinking in making these estimates; second, to ensure that the administration has an accurate understanding of what we have proposed.

Overall, this meeting marked a turn to the details of our March 3 draft. The working atmosphere was cordial and direct: an observer might have characterized it as “problem solving” rather than “adversarial.” The meeting concluded with a tentative agreement that “the UFE and the College will maintain a UFE-Management Committee to provide a forum for communication between the parties and to promote constructive UFE-management relations.” In fact, our current relations with the management committee are constructive.

Our next bargaining session is scheduled for Monday, April 21.

Chuck Pailthorp,
for UFE Bargaining Team

Gery Gerst
Jose Gomez
Jeanne Hahn
Allen Standing Bear Jenkins
Laurie Meeker
Gary McNeil*
Zahid Shariff
Rebecca Sunderman
Edward Taub*
Brian Walter