2008 Woodie Awards
Non-tenure faculty sign first contract
Maggie Willis
Issue date: 11/1/07 Section: News
The Non-tenure Track Faculty Association agreed to accept the university's offer for their first contract Thursday, Oct. 25.
Dues-paying members of the union will vote to accept or reject this contract on Tuesday and Wednesday in the Morris University Center's International Room. Members who have not paid their dues will be able to join at these meetings.
Alan Shiller, president of the NTTFA, was the chief negotiator in the contract.
"We've been negotiating the contract for two and a half years and we finally have an agreement with the university," Shiller said. "It's a sixty-page document. It's our first contract, so we have to cover all of the groundwork."
Contract negotiations began in March 2005 using the Interests-Based Bargaining approach, a collaborative and non-adversarial approach, and then later transitioned into traditional bargaining, as the IBB approach was taking too long.
"When we were organizing the union, we surveyed our membership and, based on the survey, we came up with 43 specific concerns or issues that our members had," Shiller said. "I'm happy to say that most, if not all, of these concerns are address in the contract."
While Shiller said the contract includes issues like grievance procedures, reduction in force language, compensation, benefits, discipline, access to personnel files and paid and unpaid leaves, he said he cannot disclose any specific information about what is in the contract.
"It hasn't been voted on yet, and we want the members to be the first to know what is in the contract," Shiller said. "Members of the bargaining unit will be able to review the contract, discuss and ask questions and ultimately vote on the contract, but only dues-paying members will be able to vote."
Although only dues-paying members will be able to vote on the contract, the contract will affect all non-tenure track faculty, excluding the schools of Nursing, Dental Medicine and Pharmacy.
"Any member of the bargaining unit will be able to view the contract and ask questions," Shiller said.
The NTTFA bargaining team consisted of Michele Lorenzini, Michael Schneider, Janet Fulk and Shiller, with Ruth Bell as the secretary.
"A lot of us on the team hadn't done anything like this before, so a lot of it was learn-on-the-go," Lorenzini said. "So it was a learning process. But I've already got a list in my head of things I want to try to do for the next contract."
The administrative team included Assistant to the Provost Mark Bacus, who was also the chair, Director of Human Resources A.G. Monaco, Associate Provost Susan Thomas and Kurt Lox, as well as other members of human resources.
Dues-paying members of the union will vote to accept or reject this contract on Tuesday and Wednesday in the Morris University Center's International Room. Members who have not paid their dues will be able to join at these meetings.
Alan Shiller, president of the NTTFA, was the chief negotiator in the contract.
"We've been negotiating the contract for two and a half years and we finally have an agreement with the university," Shiller said. "It's a sixty-page document. It's our first contract, so we have to cover all of the groundwork."
Contract negotiations began in March 2005 using the Interests-Based Bargaining approach, a collaborative and non-adversarial approach, and then later transitioned into traditional bargaining, as the IBB approach was taking too long.
"When we were organizing the union, we surveyed our membership and, based on the survey, we came up with 43 specific concerns or issues that our members had," Shiller said. "I'm happy to say that most, if not all, of these concerns are address in the contract."
While Shiller said the contract includes issues like grievance procedures, reduction in force language, compensation, benefits, discipline, access to personnel files and paid and unpaid leaves, he said he cannot disclose any specific information about what is in the contract.
"It hasn't been voted on yet, and we want the members to be the first to know what is in the contract," Shiller said. "Members of the bargaining unit will be able to review the contract, discuss and ask questions and ultimately vote on the contract, but only dues-paying members will be able to vote."
Although only dues-paying members will be able to vote on the contract, the contract will affect all non-tenure track faculty, excluding the schools of Nursing, Dental Medicine and Pharmacy.
"Any member of the bargaining unit will be able to view the contract and ask questions," Shiller said.
The NTTFA bargaining team consisted of Michele Lorenzini, Michael Schneider, Janet Fulk and Shiller, with Ruth Bell as the secretary.
"A lot of us on the team hadn't done anything like this before, so a lot of it was learn-on-the-go," Lorenzini said. "So it was a learning process. But I've already got a list in my head of things I want to try to do for the next contract."
The administrative team included Assistant to the Provost Mark Bacus, who was also the chair, Director of Human Resources A.G. Monaco, Associate Provost Susan Thomas and Kurt Lox, as well as other members of human resources.
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