Bargaining Session Update
The two teams spent the entire day together with the Michigan Employment Relations Committee (MERC)-appointed mediator. Mediation is a standard bargaining practice wherein teams voluntarily engage in negotiations with a confidential, third-party negotiator. At times the mediator will meet jointly with both teams while at other times they will move back and forth between the teams separately in their caucus rooms. A mediator has no authority to compel proposals for either side but is there to help the teams explore different resolutions.
The mediator will return on August 5th to continue negotiations.
At this point, we have made all of our language proposals. The employer shared a single language counter proposal with minor changes and added some more details on the costing they provided. In response to our economic proposal from last week, the employer offered incremental increases in the merit pool for years three through five from their July 10 proposal. They continue to propose a forced distribution of merit scores; their proposal also includes modest annual increases to the faculty travel fund.
Article X (Professional Responsibilities):
The one remaining issue in Article X is the employer’s proposal to assert a uniform teaching workload for Special Instructors. The employer slightly modified their language on this item but the basic concept remains unchanged as does the OU-AAUP’s position that faculty workload statements belong to the individual unit
Today was a long day for our team and we were grateful to run into some OU support while grabbing sandwiches off campus. The team will continue working throughout this week to be prepared for next week’s sessions.