After a very long day, we remain without a new contract. We have agreed to a contract extension through the end of the day, September 3. While the next bargaining session with the mediator is scheduled for September 3, the teams have agreed to consider an earlier date in order to reach a contract agreement as soon as possible.
During today’s negotiations, several proposals were passed back and forth through the mediator. The AAUP has made every effort to reach a fair and equitable contract that meets the needs of our members. The employer continues to use unrealistically conservative budget projections to excuse their minimal and insufficient salary increases. Three years ago, the employer made similarly unrealistic budget projections to argue that adequately paying faculty was not possible. Rather than balanced budgets during those three years, revenues actually exceeded expenditures by over $80 million. Ultimately, these funds were added to Oakland’s reserves rather than funding market-appropriate compensation.
In addition, the employer has persisted in tying changes to workload policy to any significant movement on salary increases.
The bargaining team will hold membership meetings this Friday, both in person and virtually. Faculty should have received the information via email and another notice will be shared tomorrow. We look forward to continuing negotiations on behalf of our very deserving faculty.
