|
|
|
|
|
www.adjuncts.apea-aft.org
NEGOTIATIONS FINALLY UNDERWAY!
After more than six months of preliminaries,
the negotiations for our second contract are underway. Your six-person negotiating team met with the University on
Friday and Saturday, November 30th and December 1st. Your negotiating team is proposing about 20
changes to the contract. If you are
interested in seeing all the changes, contact any member of your
negotiating team – whose names, home phone numbers and email address are in
the newsletter. The biggest changes are as follows: PAY INCREASE We are negotiating
for a substantial increase in pay. Adjuncts
who started teaching in the 1980s saw their first salary increase with out first
contract. Even though that was
almost a 16% increase, we are still woefully behind the inflation curve.
$1,000 in 1980 had the same buying power as $2156.55 today.
And we are still well behind what full time instructors make, probably
the lowers percentage in the country. ELIMINATION OF TIER
ONE ADJUNCTS We are also
negotiating for the elimination of Tier One payment.
Currently adjuncts are paid on the basis of how many semesters they have
been teaching. New adjuncts start
at Tier One while adjuncts with years of experience are on Tier Three.
But what has happened is that administrators are removing adjuncts from
Tier Three and replacing their with new employees to save money.
By eliminating Tier One this time and Tier Two at the next negations in
three years, we will have all adjuncts making the same and thus there will be no
financial incentive to replace the more experienced adjuncts. SMALLER CLASSES We are also
negotiating for smaller classes, no more than 15 for labs and intensive writing
classes and no more than 20 for other classes.
Adjuncts teaching classes over these sizes will receive an increase of
50% in pay. Additionally, there has
so been so much abuse of what “class size” means that we are negotiating to
end the concept altogether. This
means adjuncts will be paid for a full class regardless of how many students are
there. PREPARATION FEES Also being
negotiated are preparation fees of 30% for new classes. TENURE FOR CLASSES We are also
negotiating for tenure for adjuncts who have taught the same class or classes
for more than three semesters. Currently
adjuncts are being replaced at the whim of an administrator even though the
adjunct may be doing a good job. Those
adjuncts who have taught for years “earn” their class size and it is
unreasonable for an adjunct to build his/her class size only to have it snagged
away because of nepotism. We are also
negotiating for first right of refusal for full time jobs in subject areas where
adjuncts are currently teaching. HEALTH INSURANCE We are also
negotiating for $65 per month per adjunct for some form of health insurance.
We are considering a supplemental insurance, such as AFLAC, because some
adjuncts already have access to some form of insurance but not that many have
supplemental benefits. OTHER ITEMS Other items on the
table include the ability to bank up to 18 units of free classes because most
adjuncts cannot take their free class while they are teaching, a reduction in
parking fees (a key issue in Fairbanks), and full travel benefits when adjuncts
teach a class that requires travel. YOUR NEGOTIATORS If
you have any questions or comments on the contract NOW is the moment for you to make your wishes known. The
longer you wait, the harder it is going to be included your input into the
contract. The six adjuncts and one
staff person representing you and their contact home phone numbers and emails
are FAIRBANKS Janice Shipman fsjas9@uaf.com 488-1842 Lisa Harbo Lisa_Harbo@yahoo.com 478-8228 ANCHORAGE MAT-SU Shari Williams john_shari@hotmail.com 745-2723 PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD Dr. Barbara C. Cole bcole@maniilaq.org 442-2966 STAFF Steven Levi adjuncts@pobox.alaska.net 274-1688 in Anchorage 1-800-478-9992 outside of Anchorage WHAT
KIND OF PROBLEMS HAS THE UNION BEEN SOLVING? Basically there are three ongoing problems
your staff is handling daily: Adjuncts who want to teach more than
the 15 credits per academic year because they teach lab classes (4 and 5
credits) or languages (4 credits.) Adjuncts
cannot teach more than 15 credits during any academic year because to do so they
would have to become members of another bargaining unit, ACCFT. This is not a problem the adjunct union can solve.
Adjuncts who want to teach more than 15 credits per academic year should
contact ACCFT for more details. Adjuncts who have not been retained to teach a class
they might have been teaching for years. Usually
this involves ‘someone with connections’ who gets the job. This happens most
frequently over the summer when a ‘friend of a friend of a full time
professor’ wants to come to Alaska for the summer and bumps out an adjunct who
has been teaching the class for years. Under the current contract, adjuncts do
not have any tenure rights. Adjuncts who have class startup problems.
Usually these means one of four things:
1) they aren’t getting their letter of appointment before the class
starts, 2) they don’t know how to fill out the dues deduction form and don’t
know where to turn it in, 3) their books or teaching materials are not arriving
on time, particularly when they teach in a remote location, or 4) how do they
get a refund for a class or a parking permit for which they have already paid.
Union staff is handling this on a case-by-case basis. WHAT IS A HUDSON
PACKET AND WHERE CAN I FIND ONE? By state law, no one can be forced to join a union even
if they are represented by a union. When
you filled out your dues deduction form, you had to mark one of two boxes:
dues deduction or agency fee payer.
If you checked the dues deduction box you were a full member of United
Academic Adjuncts and can vote on the contract. If you checked the Agency Fee
box, that means you are paying for the service you receive only and cannot
participate in any union business – including voting on the contract. If you are not sure which box you checked, contact
Kerin Geiger in Juneau ( 586-2334 or, outside of Juneau, 1-800-478-9991 or by
email: kgeiger@apea-aft.org)
to see what your status is. ONLY
DUES PAYING MEMBERS CAN VOTE ON THE CONTRACT. If you are an Agency Fee payer, you may request what is called a “Hudson Packet” which is a financial overview of the union. This is to assure you that the dues you are paying have a fiscal basis rather than just a number pulled out of the air. The Hudson Packet for APEA-AFT is currently available on the web at www.apea-aft.org or, if you need a hard copy, by requesting one from Steve Levi in the Anchorage office, 274-1688 or, outside of Anchorage, at 1-800-478-9992. ###
|
ADJUNCT NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2001