FAQs on UA’s Collective Bargaining, early September 2024 

1. What’s the latest with bargaining? 

Since July, our negotiations have been with the assistance of a federal mediator, Annie Rutsky, to try to reach agreement on a number of the open articles.

Details on articles we tentatively agreed to are available here: https://www.unitedacademics.org/contract-bargaining-2024

We are at the point of trying to package the large, remaining articles to reach a settlement at the table. These include:

• Salary

• Teaching faculty titles, equity

• Benefits (specifically health insurance)

• Workload

• Contract duration

  2. What is impasse?

  Impasse means that the parties have reached a point in negotiations in which we are stuck, neither party is willing to move any further from its position, and therefore no further progress can be made in that state. At that point, we call in a mediator to assist the parties in moving toward one another in an attempt to reach agreement. The mediator is a neutral party who often ‘shuttles’ between two rooms with each of the bargaining teams and works to help each team consider possible packages of unresolved articles. Their goal is to help the parties reach agreement without having to go to arbitration. We are already at the point of working with a mediator and are still making some progress. 

  3. When will we have a new contract?

  We cannot predict this. It will depend on how mediation goes over the next month, whether the administration moves significantly on the outstanding articles including salary, whether members are satisfied with the final proposals achieved through mediation or if we move to the next step of fact-finding, and then the time it takes to schedule and prepare for fact finding, and to receive the fact finder’s report. 

  4. What is fact finding?

  Fact finding occurs after impasse and after the parties have progressed as far as possible with a mediator. This involves hiring a neutral professional who will hear our arguments and review all our data, exhibits, and witnesses we prepare and issue a full report recommending a contract that is fair and balanced. They only consider those contract provisions that we have not yet agreed to at the table, which often includes salary. Previously TAed articles remain on the sidelines as agreed upon areas that go forward when the full contract is considered for ratification.

  Our UA negotiations went to fact finding in 2017, so we have a relatively recent experience from which to draw as we prepare for this process.

  5. Our contract expired in June: does that mean we’re working without a contract?

  No. The ‘expired’ CBA, and all its provisions, is still in effect. None of the ‘Tentatively Agreed’(TAed) articles being bargained this round will go into effect until the whole new CBA is ratified. 
  

  6. Is it true that faculty have not received salary increases for this AY at this time since the new CBA has not been ratified?

  Yes. Raises are still being negotiated as part of the collective bargaining process, so the amount has not yet been agreed upon. The timing of a new agreement going into effect depends on what we're hearing from members about the proposals currently on the table (which at this point is that it's not enough to settle), the next phase of bargaining which involves a fact finder, and other factors.
  

  7. When a new contract goes into effect, will pay increases be retroactive?

  Our position is that whatever raises we negotiate for this year should be retroactive to the start of FY 25 (starting July 1, 2024). The administration may not be willing to agree to that, so that part as well may be a subject of negotiations.
  

  8. Does UVM’s leadership transition affect bargaining?

  This is unclear. The current instability of executive leadership could mean delays in the administration agreeing to move on major changes (salary increases, restructuring of Lecturer ranks and titles, big workload changes…)
  

  9. How can I help us win a great contract? 

• Show up to our next bargaining sessions

• Wear your UA t-shirt on bargaining days

• Talk to your colleagues, students and neighbors about our key issues 

• Say no to unpaid additional work

• Join contract actions this semester

• Show up in solidarity with our union siblings who are also bargaining - UVM Staff United, and UVM Graduate Students United