NULWU blog

We had another bargaining session with management on Thursday, August 13. Our side presented first, offering a comprehensive packet of responses to their proposals and counterproposals. We came to tentative agreements on proposals related to holidays worked, bereavement leave, and family neonatal intensive care leave. We withdrew three of our language proposals related to defining emergencies, specifying positions within the bargaining unit, and the number of stewards able to attend grievance arbitrations; movement on these proposals has stalled and we think it’s important to focus our efforts on other proposals.    We then presented counterproposals on professional development, job classification, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and compensation, including cost of living adjustment (COLA) and caps on insurance premiums. Management asked a few clarifying questions during the presentations, and then we broke into caucus. We spent time during the caucus working on counterproposals...

 We had another bargaining session with management on Thursday, July 30. The session began with them asking us questions on our parental leave proposal. They then caucused for over two hours.  Afterwards, with only an hour left in the session, they came back and hastily presented counterproposals on librarian faculty promotion, bereavement, holidays, neonatal intensive care leave, and compensation. They also presented a proposal to clarify some language in our existing extended sick time article, as well as a new proposal on job classifications for staff. While some of these proposals are reasonable, we continue to disagree on major points in others.  For example, they did not present a counterproposal on staff promotion, opting instead to introduce a separate proposal on new or changed classifications. This proposal fails to take into account the high qualifications of many people in staff positions throughout the Libraries. It is particularly frustrating in light of how...