Administration halts adjunct negotiations
Mark Scialla
Issue date: 2/3/09 Section: News
"It has always been our policy to not discuss negotiations with the public," Weygand said.
Anne Marie Coleman, assistant vice president of human resources administration and chief negotiator on behalf of the administration was unavailable for comment.
Katz said, "The reason the university has not agreed to their proposals is that their proposals, in terms of salary and benefits, are somewhere in the neighborhood of $14 million or $15 million and this is something that the University has not agreed to do."
Donnelly said that those figures are not accurate and are closer to $5 million.
According to Donnelly the PTFU has filed three unfair labor practice charges with the Rhode Island State Labor Relations Board against the university for violations of the Rhode Island Labor Law. The charges included establishing a workload policy outside of the negotiation process, the university's refusal to produce statistics, and data. In addition, the length of time that individual faculty members have taught at URI and how many courses they have taught, the university's refusal to discuss negotiable items, and restricting the PTFU to teaching two courses per semester are also charges. Donnelly said the workload policy is also on the table in the negotiation process.
Carothers said the course restriction was implemented because benefits would have to be issued to professors who taught more than two courses per semester. This would obscure the definition of part-time faculty.
The PTFU is demanding equitable salary, benefits, seniority rights and job security because the university is not contractually obligated to rehire part-time faculty. According to Donnelly, agreements have been reached regarding non-monetary issues such as access to workspace and grievance procedure methods.
The labor board certified the PTFU in 2007. The PTFU is now attempting to establish its first union contract. Donnelly said she is not surprised the process has taken more than a year to establish an initial contract. According to Donnelly, the PTFU feels it need a contract to protect its interests and issues. The URI full-time faculty and graduate assistants both have contracts.
Anne Marie Coleman, assistant vice president of human resources administration and chief negotiator on behalf of the administration was unavailable for comment.
Katz said, "The reason the university has not agreed to their proposals is that their proposals, in terms of salary and benefits, are somewhere in the neighborhood of $14 million or $15 million and this is something that the University has not agreed to do."
Donnelly said that those figures are not accurate and are closer to $5 million.
According to Donnelly the PTFU has filed three unfair labor practice charges with the Rhode Island State Labor Relations Board against the university for violations of the Rhode Island Labor Law. The charges included establishing a workload policy outside of the negotiation process, the university's refusal to produce statistics, and data. In addition, the length of time that individual faculty members have taught at URI and how many courses they have taught, the university's refusal to discuss negotiable items, and restricting the PTFU to teaching two courses per semester are also charges. Donnelly said the workload policy is also on the table in the negotiation process.
Carothers said the course restriction was implemented because benefits would have to be issued to professors who taught more than two courses per semester. This would obscure the definition of part-time faculty.
The PTFU is demanding equitable salary, benefits, seniority rights and job security because the university is not contractually obligated to rehire part-time faculty. According to Donnelly, agreements have been reached regarding non-monetary issues such as access to workspace and grievance procedure methods.
The labor board certified the PTFU in 2007. The PTFU is now attempting to establish its first union contract. Donnelly said she is not surprised the process has taken more than a year to establish an initial contract. According to Donnelly, the PTFU feels it need a contract to protect its interests and issues. The URI full-time faculty and graduate assistants both have contracts.
