Bargaining Session Report
7:40 pm
The Agreement has been extended until Wednesday, September 1, 2021 at 11:59pm.
Since our last update, we have received no new proposals from OU. At 7:40pm, the mediator informed us that OU needed more time to formulate a counterproposal.
We are adjourned until noon Wednesday, the earliest they are willing to meet with us. Prior to our adjournment, the AAUP Bargaining Team made it clear that we were willing to stay as long as needed to work towards an agreement late into the night as the faculty are cognizant that classes start for our students on Thursday at 8:00am.
7:00 pm
We have been in a bargaining session, facilitated by a state mediator who had been requested by both sides, with the Oakland team since 9 am. In all this time, we have not received any change in the University’s economic proposals. Many hours ago, we submitted a revised economic proposal, to which the University has not responded in any meaningful way.
However, we had exchanges on language items:
- We reached a tentative agreement on language on workload policy review.The language is a compromise.The agreed-upon language does not give Oakland the unilateral ability to rewrite workload policies, but it does have a more extensive process for review and deliberation in the review of workload policies.Additionally,it sets timelines for both sides to meet and respond when a unit reviews its workload policy.
- We reached a tentative agreement not to change Article 29 and Appendix I which determine the university calendar.
- We reached a tentative agreement on Article V (Association Rights) and resolved minor language issues without substantive changes to this article.
We have discussed many issues surrounding making the contract more equitable for Special Lecturers. Oakland has rejected, in totality, any changes to Special Lecturer benefits and mitigating the adverse consequences to Special Lecturers as the University converts more classes from 4 credits to 3 credits.
We are willing to continue all night tonight and all day and night tomorrow to deliver a fair contract for our amazing faculty prior to the start of classes.