Student Support Services Staff Union (SSSSU) FAQs: SSSSU FAQs_fin

TESC Student Support Services Staff Union: https://www.facebook.com/TESCx

WFSE/AFSCME articles:

http://www.wfse.org/collective-bargaining/tesc-ssssu-bargaining-team/

http://www.wfse.org/take-action-tell-evergreen-its-time-for-a-fair-contract/

http://www.wfse.org/wfseafscme-sets-the-record-straight-over-evergreen-administrations-assertions/

www.wfse.org/vote-on-possible-strike-in-progress-at-tesc/

http://www.wfse.org/more-locals-support-the-evergreen-state-college-workers/

Student Support–National & TESC:

USAS (United Students Against Sweatshops): http://usas.org/2013/05/16/progressive-evergreen-college-pushes-workers-to-strike-vote/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Services-Not-Silence/155603534597721?ref=stream

Newspaper & Online Media Articles:

The Olympian: ww.theolympian.com/2013/05/16/2547210/evergreen-union-may-strike.html

Bellingham Herald: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/05/16/3011411/evergreen-union-may-strike.html

Tacoma News Tribune: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/05/16/2599512/evergreen-union-may-strike.html

The Stand: http://www.thestand.org/2013/05/video-chronicles-a-year-of-bargaining-at-evergreen-state-college/

Puget Sound Anarchists: http://pugetsoundanarchists.org/content/case-strike-letter-solidarity-olympia-sds-ssssu

Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (copy of USAS article): http://ggjalliance.org/aggregator

Thurston-Lewis-Mason Central Labor Council: http://tlmlabor.org/washington-state-news/

Online videos:

SSSSU Meets with TESC Board of Trustees: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IshLHGPtkxQ

SSSSU Video “A Year of Bargaining” http://vimeo.com/tescssssu

Article PDFS:

De_Investing in Staff–The Hidden Campus Workforce: by Gary Rhoades & Christine Maitland from the NEA Almanac in Higher Education

Academic Advising_Comm College–What is the Effect of Academic Advising on Students’ Chance of Success?; by Peter Riley Bahr from the Research in Higher Education Journal

Student-Success_HigherEd–2011 Report by the American Federation of Teachers

We hope you can review these links!

Liza Rognas & Grace Huerta, UFE Research & Communications, May 20, 2013

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May Update: Joint Communiqué From the TESC Academic Administration & the UFE on Summer Institutes & Curriculum Planning Days

This is a May 2013  joint communiqué from Allen Olson and Laurie Meeker on behalf of the TESC academic administration and United Faculty of Evergreen.

We are writing to clarify the current status of summer institutes and curriculum planning days and to address some recent confusion about the bargaining process. In negotiations that led to the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the UFE and management teams agreed to some changes to the funding that supports faculty summer institutes.  Both negotiating teams weighed options for compensation and faculty development as part of the whole budgetary picture. Budget challenges meant that priorities had to be negotiated, and both parties agreed that to support the academic mission of the college (student retention as related to recruiting and retaining qualified faculty) faculty salaries were a high priority, along with a commitment to faculty development.

The administration examined many parts of the academic budget to find ways to increase the compensation for all faculty members.  In the end, the UFE and management teams agreed to increase the 2013-14 faculty salary grid by 5.5%. Half a percent of that increase was the result of moving funds to the faculty salary pool from an account used to support summer curricular planning and summer institutes.  This move was communicated by the UFE bargaining team to its members and by the management team to the Board of Trustees.

The UFE statement to their members summarizing the new contract (2 June 2012) stated that the faculty salary increase included “0.5% for movement of summer curriculum planning days into governance time carved out during the academic year.”  The same document later stated, “It is important to note that the College indicated during negotiations that the funding they use for curriculum planning days AND summer institutes has been moved to this increase to base compensation” (emphasis in original).

Management’s statement to the Board of Trustees summarizing the new contract (12 June 2012) stated that 0.5% of the faculty salary increase was the result of “reallocation from money paid to faculty for participating in planning days and faculty institutes over the summer.”

The increase in faculty compensation does not eliminate the opportunity for faculty to be compensated for participation in summer institutes.  That compensation has not changed and is stated in Article 17.2 of the CBA: “Faculty participants will be paid a daily stipend of $125 and conveners will be paid a daily stipend of $250 for participating in summer institutes.”  The compensation stated in this article was considered and reaffirmed both in the main negotiations that led to the current CBA and in the recent negotiations specific to summer quarter.  These more recent negotiations resulted in a Memorandum of Understanding that also states, “Compensation for Disappearing Task Force and special college projects will remain at status quo of $250 per day.

Moving the compensation for summer curriculum planning days into the regular academic year led to discussions about the need to set aside more time, institution-wide, for curricular planning work to happen.  The negotiated agreement sets aside four Wednesday afternoons for curricular planning (see Article 7.5). While the budget line for both curriculum planning days and summer institutes was reorganized, the parties made no agreement that summer institutes would be discontinued. The UFE statement to their members last June noted, “… funding for summer institutes is not guaranteed (nor was it under the last CBA); yet we don’t expect summer institutes to disappear.”  The addendum to this is that even though they are not expected to disappear, they will be more rare than in the past unless the administration secures enough other funding to offset the funds that were moved to the faculty salary pool.

Both the UFE and the administration are committed to exploring ways to improve opportunities for faculty development. This is evident in another highlight from the new CBA: the increase in funding for faculty professional travel from $750 per year per full-time faculty member to $1,000 per year per full time faculty member. However, continued budget challenges will reduce the number and scope of summer institute offerings this summer.  At this point for summer 2013, the administration has determined that the only summer opportunity for which funds are available is a workshop for faculty who were not a part of last summer’s Academic Statement Initiative providing an overview of and orientation to this initiative.

Digest of the Draft of the Tentative Agreement (revised June 5)– summarizes draft changes to the existing CBA
Draft of the Tentative Agreement — please review in advance of the Membership Meeting on Wed, June 6.

See the statement of support from the the Coordinating Committee of the UFE.

UFE members have been contributing to the Occupy movement in several ways.  Many of us have attended General Assemblies and camped overnight.  We’ve attended rallies, and UFE coordinators have spoken at the major rallies at the capitol.  Some members have cooked meals and delivered them.  We are donating $500 to Occupy Olympia and Occupy Tacoma.

Several UFE members and Evergreen faculty have written articles related to the Occupy movement.  Here are links to those that we know about:

Bret Weinstein (Evolutionary Biology):  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/04 (originally published in the Tacoma News Tribune).

Trevor Griffey (U.S. History) : http://blog.seattlepi.com/trevorgriffey/2011/11/29/occupy-the-capitol/

Alan Nasser (Emeritus, Political Economy) has a series of articles at Counterpunch. many of which relate to core Occupy themes.  See, for example,  How the Oligarchy Gets Politicized (Nov 15)