Post by FIUBlue82 on Feb 16, 2006 22:40:15 GMT -5
Good news.
www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/13883651.htm
Posted on Thu, Feb. 16, 2006
HIGHER EDUCATION
FIU faculty approves contract
FIU professors ratified a three-year contract that will get them more money and the right to outside arbitration to settle disputes.
BY NOAH BIERMAN
nbierman@MiamiHerald.com
Florida International University's faculty took a crucial step toward ending three years of labor strife on Wednesday with an overwhelming vote to approve a new contract.
Both sides said the new deal will help the fast-growing school -- now at 37,000 students -- recruit better faculty. It also clears what could have been a potential public-relations hurdle to gaining a coveted medical school, because faculty leaders said the strife might hurt FIU's reputation among state decision-makers.
Professors -- who approved the agreement by a vote of 305-2 -- said they got what they wanted in the three-year contract, a raise that guarantees each faculty member a minimum 3.6 percent pay hike in the first year and the right to an internal panel to arbitrate grievances. That's on top of a 4 percent raise previously approved for the 2004-05 school year.
Future raises under the contract will be negotiated prior to the 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years.
President Modesto ''Mitch'' Maidique hailed the agreement as a major achievement. It was the first contract for FIU faculty since the state dissolved its Board of Regents -- which used to govern the public university system -- and gave authority to individual boards of trustees to negotiate with faculty on a school-by-school basis.
About 900 FIU professors and librarians covered under the agreement had been working without a contract since January 2003.
FIU says it will be the first university in the state -- public or private -- to offer six-months' paid leave to either parent following the birth of a child.
FIU also joins the University of Florida in extending healthcare benefits to same-sex domestic partners.
FIU's board of trustees still needs to approve the deal; that could come as soon as next week. The board's executive committee already approved the terms on Jan. 18.
Maidique said the new contract would free him to communicate better with professors, because he could not previously speak at faculty governance meetings without worrying that the discussions would lapse into contract talk and potentially scuttle negotiations.
Faculty anger had been growing in recent months. In March, more than 100 professors flooded a board of trustees' meeting and gave union chief Alan Gummerson a standing ovation when he announced he was ready to declare ''war'' with the administration -- threatening the university's plans for a coveted medical school with the bad publicity.
''I think a lot of faculty were [previously] upset with the way we were being treated,'' Gummerson said. ``I think a lot of faculty think Maidique has [since] seen the light and are very pleased with the contract.''
Maidique, who does not believe the union issue would affect the school's quest for a medical school, said he was expressing the will of his board as he and his senior staff negotiated with the union.
''The Board of Trustees had some strong views, views that I shared, but strong views on the labor contract,'' he said, adding that each side made compromises.
He said he has always fought for faculty salaries and that both sides learned from the negotiations.
``Maybe the light shown on both of us.''
www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/13883651.htm
Posted on Thu, Feb. 16, 2006
HIGHER EDUCATION
FIU faculty approves contract
FIU professors ratified a three-year contract that will get them more money and the right to outside arbitration to settle disputes.
BY NOAH BIERMAN
nbierman@MiamiHerald.com
Florida International University's faculty took a crucial step toward ending three years of labor strife on Wednesday with an overwhelming vote to approve a new contract.
Both sides said the new deal will help the fast-growing school -- now at 37,000 students -- recruit better faculty. It also clears what could have been a potential public-relations hurdle to gaining a coveted medical school, because faculty leaders said the strife might hurt FIU's reputation among state decision-makers.
Professors -- who approved the agreement by a vote of 305-2 -- said they got what they wanted in the three-year contract, a raise that guarantees each faculty member a minimum 3.6 percent pay hike in the first year and the right to an internal panel to arbitrate grievances. That's on top of a 4 percent raise previously approved for the 2004-05 school year.
Future raises under the contract will be negotiated prior to the 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years.
President Modesto ''Mitch'' Maidique hailed the agreement as a major achievement. It was the first contract for FIU faculty since the state dissolved its Board of Regents -- which used to govern the public university system -- and gave authority to individual boards of trustees to negotiate with faculty on a school-by-school basis.
About 900 FIU professors and librarians covered under the agreement had been working without a contract since January 2003.
FIU says it will be the first university in the state -- public or private -- to offer six-months' paid leave to either parent following the birth of a child.
FIU also joins the University of Florida in extending healthcare benefits to same-sex domestic partners.
FIU's board of trustees still needs to approve the deal; that could come as soon as next week. The board's executive committee already approved the terms on Jan. 18.
Maidique said the new contract would free him to communicate better with professors, because he could not previously speak at faculty governance meetings without worrying that the discussions would lapse into contract talk and potentially scuttle negotiations.
Faculty anger had been growing in recent months. In March, more than 100 professors flooded a board of trustees' meeting and gave union chief Alan Gummerson a standing ovation when he announced he was ready to declare ''war'' with the administration -- threatening the university's plans for a coveted medical school with the bad publicity.
''I think a lot of faculty were [previously] upset with the way we were being treated,'' Gummerson said. ``I think a lot of faculty think Maidique has [since] seen the light and are very pleased with the contract.''
Maidique, who does not believe the union issue would affect the school's quest for a medical school, said he was expressing the will of his board as he and his senior staff negotiated with the union.
''The Board of Trustees had some strong views, views that I shared, but strong views on the labor contract,'' he said, adding that each side made compromises.
He said he has always fought for faculty salaries and that both sides learned from the negotiations.
``Maybe the light shown on both of us.''
