Posts

Blog 8/19/23

It’s been a long time coming! We have a contract! On Thursday, 91% of our union membership voted to ratify our first contract!!! We are thrilled to be here after three years of organizing. The contract has many wins that meet our bargaining priorities: Raises Across the Board Protect Our Benefits Path to Promotion Invest in Our Development Transparency, Equity, and a Voice Wins include: Raises for everyone! The first year everyone will get a 3.75% raise OR the minimum salary of their rank, whichever is higher. We will get 3% raises in Years 2 and 3 of the contract Non-librarians will be eligible for longevity raises based on their years of service: 1% at 5 years, 1.5% at 10 years, 2% at 15 years, and 2.5% at 20 years. Librarian rank and promotion! We will have three ranks for librarians: Assistant, Associate, and Senior. The ranks will have salary minimums the first year of $70k for Assistant, $80k for Associate, and $90k for Senior. Librarians will start applying for promotion in the
Post a Comment
Read more

Bargaining Blog 7.31.23

We are very happy to announce that we have come to a tentative agreement on our first contract! Since our last bargaining session, we reached an agreement on the two remaining proposals, Compensation and Librarian Promotion.  For Compensation, we agreed that: Our salary floors for each position will be increased by at least 5% for every title, with some above 20%! For the first year of the contract, everyone will either receive a 3.75% increase, or the new salary floor, whichever is greater. Everyone will receive a 3% increase for the second and third years of the contract Non-librarian staff will receive percentage-based longevity raises at 5, 10, 15 and 20 years  For Librarian Promotion, we agreed that: Entry-level librarians will start at Assistant Librarian, and can get promoted to Associate Librarian after 5 years, and Senior Librarian 5 years after that We are promoted based on job performance, research and scholarly contributions, and service to the profession and university; we
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog 7.20.23

Thursday’s bargaining session was eight hours long! Thankfully, our time was well-spent, and we are extremely close to finalizing our first contract. We are in agreement on Professional Development, Emergency Closings, Flexible Work, and Vacation. We are going back and forth on the remaining proposals: Librarian Promotion and Compensation. We didn’t come to any tentative agreements this session since all of these proposals are part of a package; we need to come to an agreement on all of them before we can TA. For Professional Development, we agreed that: Professional development funds for non-exempt staff will increase by 50% The University will pre-pay conference registration The University will pay for up to $250 of membership in professional organizations We will reinstate the portable tuition benefit for staff pursuing an MLS For Emergency Closings, we agreed that: If there is an emergency closing, only essential staff need to report to work in person If the University cancels clas
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog 6.22.23

The end is in sight! Maybe? This session we finally reached tentative agreements on two outstanding non-economic proposals: Union Membership: after a long battle over whether the university would process deductions for COPE (SEIU’s political action committee), we have reached a tentative agreement. The university will process union dues and security fees but not COPE deductions. Layoffs and Furlough: we finally stepped off the merry-go-round on this proposal, as our negotiations had become a nightmarish back and forth over whether to “discuss” or “negotiate” the effects of furlough or layoff. The language doesn’t matter: the university is required under law to bargain with the union over the effects of a decision to furlough or layoff employees. We presented a counterproposal on Progression for librarians. Even though we have been pleased with the progress we have made together on this proposal, we were not enthusiastic about some of their conditions for progression, including requirem
Post a Comment
Read more

Bargaining Blog 6.13.23

Yesterday ’s bargaining session was short but productive! Things are moving quickly as we get closer to finishing our contract. While we didn’t come to any tentative agreements today, we moved closer together on wages, professional development, and vacation.  Economic issues that were not discussed today but are still outstanding are librarian path to promotion and flexible work schedules. At our last session, the university put forward a response to our promotion path proposal, which is promising. Both sides agree that we want a way for librarians to advance in the organization without taking on a management role. We hope to respond to the university’s proposals at our next bargaining session. Feel free to reach out to a bargaining committee member with any questions. As always, we ask that you continue to show your support for our union by wearing buttons and changing Zoom backgrounds to our union logo. The stronger the union, the better the contract! Make sure to follow us on Face
Post a Comment
Read more

Bargaining Blog 6.9.23

The University responded to our most recent economic proposals at our bargaining session last Friday. We were encouraged to see them engage with many of our concerns and put forth several counters that we were able to reach tentative agreements on. This session was our most collaborative yet, and while we are still not satisfied with some of the more substantive economic pieces of the University’s proposals, we have a lot to work with and are encouraged by this progress. The University continues to reiterate they want a deal soon and we agree, but we want a deal that is best for all library workers and we continue to work to that end! The tentative agreements we came to at this session—most of which codify existing benefits into our contract so they cannot be changed by the university without bargaining—include:  Holidays (All agreed upon paid holidays and floating holidays for those staff who work on a holiday.)  Personal Holidays (Our existing personal floating holiday accrual and po
Post a Comment
Read more

Bargaining Blog 5.17.23

  We had another bargaining session with management yesterday! After their disappointing response to our economic proposals at our last bargaining session (see our blog post from March 14 for a reminder of how frustrating this was), we had the chance to respond. We reproposed many of our original proposals on issues that we know are important to our members, such as path to promotion, rewarding longevity, making benefits for staff and librarians more similar, and flexible work strategies (see our blog post from January 17 with more details about our priorities).  After we shared our counter proposals, bargaining unit members shared testimonials on issues that mattered to them. We heard from members on how the following issues have impacted their lives: Childbearing/childrearing MLS release time and support Professional development funds and support Path to promotion Emergency closures/inclement weather Wages and compensation Vacation time A huge thank you to everyone who shared a tes
Post a Comment
Read more