Contract and Bargaining

Update

It’s Official! The changes to the 2009-2012 Collective Bargaining Agreement have been ratified!

The Faculty vote occurred August 12, 2010 at BCC’s Welcome Back event in Melbourne. 186 faculty agreed to ratify the amended contract; 11 voted against ratification. President Amy Rieger presented the results to the Board of Trustees on August 16, 2010. The BOT unanimously ratified the document.

August 9, 2010

We have conlcuded negotiations with the administration of BCC for changes to the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) to take effect for the 2010-2011 academic year. The contract provided for a "reopener" now, and again next year, on Article 14 - Economics, and at least one additional issue. As we have one year experience with the extenisve changes of the 2009-2012 agreement, both the College and UFF-Brevard agreed to review minor clarifications, typographical errors, and similar "tweaks" rather than reopen articles for major changes.

The agreement will now go to faculty for review and a ratification vote at the August 12 college-wide meeting. If the contract is ratified it will be presented to the Board of Trustees on August 16 at 9am for their consideration. If ratified by both parties the contract takes effect with the 2010-2011 academic year.

In addition to the agreements reached and already reported to faculty on Articles 6, 10, 11 and 12, our agreement on Article 14 produced the following gains for faculty.

All existing full-time faculty will get a raise. The package totals $750,000 and includes $1000.00 added to the base pay of every unit member, and an additional $155.00 per year of service also added to base. The latter amount is part of a continuing effort on the part of UFF-Brevard to address salary compression. Compression was addressed the last time we gained a salary increase and it will continue to be a concern in salary discussions for the foreseeable future as this reflects the expressed concerns of the members of the bargaining unit.

Faculty members who continue to serve as Program Coordinators and Curriculum Coordinators will see a $500.00 increase to their annual compensation for those duties.

Department Chairs have the option, with the consent of the supervising administrator, to opt for additional release time (12 credits annually) and a reduced stipend ($7500.00) for the DC position. DCs may also opt to have their compensation for the position spread over 26 pays. This option must be communicated to payroll no later than the end of the first week of the fall term. This option does not change the terms of the responsibilities of the DC.

Program Managers may also opt to have their compensation for their duties spread over 26 pays. Like the DCs, this option must be communicated to payroll before the end of the first week of the fall term.

Faculty serving as coaches, assistant coaches, club sponsors, and professional organization sponsors may see an increase in their compensation. A new chart indicating an increase in range of amounts was included in Article 14 with the stipulation that the administration would seek to secure those funds from Student Activity Fees which are controlled by the Student Government Association (SGA). The SGA will not meet before August 24 to discuss the issue as they must hold elections first. In the event that SGA balks at this proposal coaches, sponsors and the like will not see an increase in their compensation.

We had initially also proposed an increase to overload pay, but dropped this in recognition of the Administration's efforts to work with us on the salary issues we thought were a priority for most of the members of the bargaining unit.

Finally as a condition for receiving salary increases in full now, rather than later ( if at all) the Administrative team asked for a memorandum which UFF-Brevard crafted and which states:

"In acknowledgment of current economic conditions and barring significant economic improvement, UFF-Brevard intends to forego requests for salary increase in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. It is UFF-Brevard's hope that this will enable BCC to address other economic issues."

The decision to accept this condition and craft the statement was unanimous, though it was not easy.

As you know the staff members have not received a pay increase; neither did adjunct faculty. While we are neither empowered nor responsible to bargain for either contingent we do empathize with them and recognize that they too are long overdue for a pay raise. This was one of the reasons administration requested the salary memorandum. We also recognize that budget conditions may deteriorate further before they improve. Federal stimulus money, for example, is gone after 2010-2011. And in the real world in which we live and negotiate, pay raises have not historically been an annual event. There are a number of other issues we discussed with respect to this. However, I don't know that any lengthy consideration here will forestall faculty questions or discussions about this particular issue or any other issue related to the CBA. We have been given a significant portion of 90 minutes at the meeting on August 12 to discuss and vote on this contract.

I know you will give careful and thoughtful consideration to what we have presented, and no doubt vote as best serves your interests. We certainly did our best to serve them as well.

Respectfully,

Lynn Spencer, Chief Negotiator for UFF-Brevard