Bargaining Diary Archives

We met with the employer’s team for a couple of hours today. Bargaining often begins with non-economic issues as the parties learn about one another before tackling the economic matters. Our team presented several contract language proposals today, outlined below. Because several of the proposals we presented were of particular concern to Special Instructors and Special Lecturers, we invited several long-serving SIs and SLs to the room and were grateful for those who could attend. The employer’s team did not have any proposals to present and indicated they would respond to our proposals at the next bargaining session scheduled for June 19.

 OU-AAUP Proposals:

• Paragraph 76, Faculty Salary Increase Application.  This proposal simply allows a faculty member to initiate a request for a Paragraph 76 salary increase.  It changes nothing about the circumstances under which such a salary increase may be awarded, nor does it change anything about Oakland’s sole discretion in awarding such an increase.  Faculty are in the best position to advocate for themselves and should be able to participate fully in a process designed to reward excellence and achieve equity.  
• Special Lecturer Priority Hire.  This proposal provides priority in hiring for current qualified Special Lecturers over non-bargaining unit faculty or new part-time hires. It also establishes a seniority for Special Lecturers in course assignments which will be used to assign courses after existing Special Lecturers have met minimum teaching loads.  Implementing these minor changes will give our Special Lecturers a modicum of security that will improve their overall working conditions.
• Internal Posting of Special Instructor and Instructor of Practice Positions.  As is already done for internal staff postings at Oakland, we are proposing that postings for full-time non-tenured positions be posted internally for a period of at least 10 days, be broadcast internally to regular part-time faculty and that the positions not require external recruitment. Such a change provides access to greater job security for our least secure faculty members and offers opportunities for greater stability and continuity within academic units, not to mention the added benefit of reduced costs associated with hiring and onboarding.  
• Emeritus Special Instructor.  We propose to expand the possibility of Emeritus status to Special Instructors with Job Security.  The proposal mirrors the current language regarding Emeritus status for tenured faculty.  Special Instructors would have to have 15 years of consecutive service at Oakland and at least 10 years of Job Security in order to be considered for Emeritus status.  Expanding the definition of Emeritus allows for long-serving, dedicated faculty to be properly acknowledged and provides space for them to continue as invested members of the Oakland community.