MINUTES FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR, 2005-2006
FF/USF Chapter Meeting
August 25, 2006
In
attendance: S. Ramírez
Wohlmuth, J. Martin, M.
Adoption of the Agenda: The agenda was adopted as presented.
Twelve-Hour Rule for Full-Time Graduate Students: After initial discussion of the issue under the “committee of the whole,” a motion was made and seconded: “The USF Chapter of UFF supports USF/GAU in their efforts to condemn the imposition of the 12-hour rule with bargaining, and is concerned about the effects of the requirement on both the quality of graduate education, and on grant and departmental budgets.” It was noted that there was no discussion with departments either, before imposing this and it will be on the agenda of the faculty senate. A substitute motion was made and carried unanimously to have Roy Weatherford send a letter to the President with input from the leadership list.
Dates for Fall Consultations: R. Weatherford mentioned he will request dates falling on Mondays, Wednesdays and/or Fridays.
Labor
Day with
Phone
Banking: If there are any volunteers
for phone banking in conjunction with other unions’ members in the area, let
Reports:
a. Budget/Membership: S. Dorn’s budget and membership plan was adopted by the group unanimously. More on membership later.
b. Calendar of Meetings: The group decided to continue meeting on non-payday Fridays. S. Dorn will secure a room in the Education building for the meetings.
c. Bargaining: Things are not going well on the bargaining front. Once again, salary is the sticking point. Even though the Board of Trustees is not opposed to domestic partner benefits, this appears to be at a dead end, along with paid paternal leave and assigned courses for spouses.
d. Membership: S. Permuth outlined the plan for “recruitment and recrention.” He also intends to hold a desserts party at the end of September in his home, as well as setting up luncheons for members with leadership. He’s hoping to build a sub-structure for the spots that are only one person-deep.
Adjournment: Their being no Good of the Order items, the meeting adjourned at approximately 1:45 p.m.
UFF/USF Chapter Meeting
September 8, 2006
In
attendance: A. Levine, N. Tyson, J.
Martin, M.
Adoption of the Agenda: The agenda was adopted as presented, with two changes/additions.
BOT Agenda: In rearranging its agenda to focus more on discussions, the Board of Trustees had dropped UFF from its spot on the agenda. Weatherford spoke with Rhea Law and with Gerard Solis and came to the understanding that UFF had been reinstated. But when Weatherford arrived at the BOT meeting, UFF was not on the agenda after all. After discussion, the consensus of the group was that a chapter grievance should be filed within the proper timeframe, to protect the rights of the chapter as provided by the CBA.
Political Endorsements: The FEA/NEA has endorsed Jim Davis for governor, as has the Florida AFL-CIO. Two UFF members are running for state offices: Bill Heller and Keith Fitzgerald.
UFF
Senate Meeting: The meeting is in
Reports:
a. Bargaining: Close to an agreement, but not close on salary issues.
b.
Membership:
Permuth and Lang attended the FEA/UFF organizing training last weekend. A plan has been formulated for the
c. Grievances: Several active grievances were discussed.
Other Business: What has
happened to the issues brought to light during the consultation process? There is urgent need to follow-up on these
very important items to keep them from simply disappearing.
Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at approximately 1:23 p.m.
UFF/USF Chapter Meeting
September 22, 2006
In
attendance: S. Ramírez
Wohlmuth, J. Martin, M.
Adoption of the Agenda: The agenda was adopted “with flexibility.”
GAU/USF: Some of the officers of the USF/GAU attended the meeting and were welcomed. Present were: Keri Dhondup, secretary; Daniel Blaeuer, treasurer; and Sarah McGhee, grievance chair.
UFF Senate: G. McColm reported on the UFF Senate of the previous weekend. Larry Gold, from AFT attended and spoke to the attacks on academic freedom. McColm was particularly impressed with reports from NEA of the support of K-12 teachers for UFF’s struggles with the ‘travel ban to terrorist states’ law. S. Singh mentioned the discussion about the percentages of the dues split between the state UFF and local chapters and the need to provide more funding to GAU chapters for organizing purposes.
Reports:
a. Newsletter: The Bi-Weekly just out covers last week’s senate meeting. Uncommon Sense is at the printers and will be in the mail soon.
b. Treasurer: There is money, a little less than two weeks ago.
c.
Grievances:
M.
d.
Membership: There are a couple of new
members. A workshop on new employee
rights and orientation sessions will be held the first week of October. The membership/”just desserts” party is
scheduled for the end of September at the home of
e. Bargaining: It is all coming down to the issue of salary. The team is willing and prepared to declare impasse if the administration refuses to move from their current position.
S. Greenbaum: The provost is working hard on the issue of who is faculty and it appears that there is a move to reclassify some faculty who are not teaching. The provost feels that the university is losing money due to these non-teaching faculty members. There was a comment from the group that perhaps the university should take the teaching lines away from administrators to save money.
Good of the Order: S. Dorn announced that he will not be the treasurer in the fall. He intends to run in the next election cycle for the office of president.
Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at approximately 1:45 p.m.
UFF/USF Chapter Meeting
October 6, 2006
In attendance: J. Martin, B. Welker, K. de la Peña McCook, S. Ramírez Wohlmuth, A. Shapiro, J. Noonan, J. Cebulski, S. Dorn, S. Greenbaum, S. Permuth, B. Frank, R. Weatherford.
Adoption of the Agenda: The agenda was adopted as presented.
Consultation and Bi-Weekly: Weatherford wrote a report on last week’s consultation for the Bi-Weekly and commented that he had not received any comments about the report of that meeting. A general discussion of the consultation followed.
GAU
& Web-Hosting for the
Bargaining: The last meeting, before impasse is declared, is scheduled for next Wednesday from 3 to 5 p.m. Welker gave an account of the bargaining process to this point.
BOT Chair Rhea Law: Weatherford recounted the saga of UFF and the BOT having left the chapter off its agenda. The grievance deadline looms and there has yet to be a meeting between Law and Weatherford. The two are scheduled to meet on October 16th, but the grievance must be filed before that date.
Reports:
a. Treasurer: The rebates for new members may be taking a toll on the treasury; as a result, the treasurer has decided to be ‘tight-fisted’ for the time-being.
b. Bi-Weekly is going on ‘swimmingly.’
c. Membership: Dorn reported nine new members. The luncheons are continuing, but the idea of the mid-semester orientations did not work. Attendance was poor.
Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at approximately 1:23 p.m.
UFF/USF Chapter Meeting
October 20, 2006
In
attendance: J. Martin, S. Ramírez Wohlmuth, A. Shapiro, J. Noonan, J. Cebulski, S. Dorn,
M. Gibbons, S. Singh, S. Permuth, B. Frank, R. Weatherford, L. Kay, G. McColm,
M.
Adoption of the Agenda: The agenda was adopted as amended.
Contribution to Breast Cancer Awareness: This topic was moved to the top of the agenda since the treasurer had to leave for another meeting and come back afterwards. The UFF/USF President has lately become aware of the political benefits of contributing to certain charitable causes, and although the chapter has not traditionally donated to charities, the consensus of the group was that a $100 contribution to Breast Cancer Awareness would be politically expedient. The treasurer, as he left for his other meeting, left a check for that purpose with the President.
Reclassification Problems: It now appears that the administration has been creating and hiring in new positions that parallel in-unit positions except that the new lines are not in-unit, and are classified differently from those that are. People in these new positions do exactly the same jobs as people who are in-unit. Discussion centered on the filing of an Unfair Labor Practice Charge. Dorn agreed to follow up with the state UFF Executive Director, Steve Weinberger.
Bargaining:
FEA Delegate Assembly: Weatherford announced that he and McColm will be attending. Permuth said that he may also attend.
BOT
Chair Rhea Law: Weatherford and Ms.
Law did meet, and she managed to convince him that she is committed to having
UFF flourish. They discussed working together and had a cordial, fairly frank
exchange of views. As to the problem of
the BOT agenda, he’s agreed to do nothing for the time-being, although the
grievance was filed due to
timeline issues.
Reports:
a. Treasurer: There have been fewer new-hire rebates than had been anticipated, so there is more money in the treasury than was originally expected.
b. Grievances: The ELI grievance is signed, but the check has not arrived yet. There was much discussion by those present of one particular grievance.
c. Newsletter: The focus of the next few issues of the BiWeekly will be on next week’s FEA Delegate Assembly. McColm asks that anyone attending consider writing about the experience or some aspect of it.
d. Membership: Dorn reported six new members. L. Kay asked that some special attention be paid to Nursing; Dorn and Permuth will try to find time in their schedules to come over together and go door-to-door.
Good of the Order: A Tampa Tribune reporter reached Dorn by phone to ask about an “unusual pattern of hiring” in a particular college of the university. Dorn ended up showing the reporter how to access GEMS data so that the reporter could do the work, not Dorn. The reporter also asked about the legislative ban on travel to terrorist states, and Dorn will speak with S. Weinberger concerning the issue.
Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 2:10 p.m.
UFF/USF Chapter Meeting
November 3, 2006
In
attendance: J. Martin, A. Shapiro,
J. Cebulski, S. Singh, S. Permuth, B. Frank, R. Weatherford, G. McColm, M.
Adoption of the Agenda: The agenda was adopted, ‘with flexibility’, as distributed.
Bargaining: Welker gave an update on the last bargaining session. The possibility of impasse was discussed.
Consultation: There has been some difficulty with the scheduling of the next consultation, with the result being that there currently is not one scheduled. One comment was that it needs to be scheduled soon so that it will occur this semester. An item for the agenda of that meeting is the status of women at the university. [See next item.]
Status
of Women at USF: McCook brought up
the AAUP report that indicates that women faculty at the
Chapter Elections: It is time for folks to begin thinking about serving as officers and/or delegates or senators for the United Faculty of Florida, USF chapter. There will need to be an election committee and so volunteers will be needed. Those running for office will not be eligible to serve on the election committee; those running for delegate or senator will be able to serve on the election committee.
Reports:
a. Treasurer: There have been fewer new-hire rebates than had been anticipated, so there is more money for other membership functions.
b. Grievances: USF administration and UFF/USF have agreed to a moratorium on grievances for the holidays. The moratorium period will be from December 15, 2006 through January 15, 2007.
c. Newsletter: The focus of the next issue of the Bi-Weekly will be the upcoming chapter elections.
d. Membership: Permuth mentioned that although luncheons are continuing, they are running into scheduling problems for them. People do not like lunch meetings on Fridays; in fact, some find it difficult to get away for lunch at all.
Other Business: McCook mentioned that Human Rights Day is December 10th. She would like to see UFF/USF celebrate it in some way and she has agreed to investigate this issue. She will report back to the group.
Good
of the Order: A panel of professors
will take a look at the Institute on Black Life’s former director Geoffrey Okogbaa’s situation.
Two professors on the panel will be members of the
Adjournment: The meeting adjourned around 1:40 p.m.
UFF/USF Chapter Meeting
November 17, 2006
In
attendance: J. Martin, A. Shapiro,
J. Cebulski, S. Singh, S. Permuth, B. Frank, G. McColm, M.
Adoption of the Agenda: The agenda was adopted as written on the board.
Bargaining: Welker gave an update on the last bargaining session. The ‘bargaining stalemate’ was discussed, including the fact that, historically, UFF/USF has never publicized anything while it was still on the table.
Second Consultation: Due to confusion about the timetable for a second consultation this semester, it will not be held. Probably there will be one scheduled early in January.
Future Meetings: It was decided that the December 15th meeting would be at CDB’s, and that the first meeting of spring semester would be on January 12th in the Education building location, EDU 258.
Reports:
a. Membership: Dorn mentioned that there are some 10 to 15 new members, (he hasn’t tallied them yet) and that the new hires rebate window has now closed. Part of the problem with that program was that UFF wasn’t part of new faculty orientation.
b. Grievances: Phil Smith is working grievances now that Kofi
Glover is out of town. The
c. Newsletter: McColm mentioned that he is still looking for guest writers
for the newsletters. There was discussion on the number of issues for
Uncommon Sense this year.
Chapter Elections: Discussion centered on the need to keep thinking about who will be running for the various offices. Preparations for the elections need to begin early in spring semester.
Good of the Order: The retirement celebration for Jim Cebulski was announced for that afternoon from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Marshall Center Ballroom. Welker mentioned that he would miss the December 1st meeting due to the celebration for his 40 years at the University.
Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 1:41 p.m.
UFF/USF Chapter Meeting
December 1, 2006
In attendance:
J. Martin, A. Shapiro, J. Cebulski, S. Permuth, G. McColm, M.
Adoption of the Agenda: The agenda was adopted as amended.
Human
Rights Day: McCook explained her
attempt to obtain further information about the celebration of Human Rights Day
here in the
Bargaining: Welker gave a bargaining update. He had resisted sending out the explanatory email to the activist list, but because the administration is actively badmouthing UFF/USF, he felt he had no choice. “Things are fine” with bargaining from the standpoint of the union. Permuth and Dorn have been circulating around campus with the bargaining surveys and membership forms, collecting survey comments and forms along the way.
BOT
Agenda: Once again, UFF is not on
the agenda of the Board of Trustees meeting.
The chapter grievance was filed, and then promptly put on hold until the
next BOT meeting was scheduled to see if the problem had been corrected.
Status of Women at USF: A member of the CVPA faculty called Weatherford to let him know about the treatment of women in that college; she was very upset by the conditions there. McCook spoke about the apparent demise of the Status of Women Committee and suggested that UFF/USF ask President Genshaft about what has happened with it. The Faculty Senates’ Committee on Educational Policy and Issues should also be brought in on this. The entire issue needs to stay on the table until it is resolved satisfactorily.
Chapter Elections: McColm, who is heading up the UFF/USF elections committee, has conferred with the state office. They would like to have officer information by April 1, 2007 at the latest. Besides McColm, other members include Martin, Greenbaum, Ingalls and McCook.
Michael
Bérubé:
After having mentioned on the activist list bringing him to campus, Dorn
offered a motion, “that the chapter agree to co-sponsor a University Lecture
Series visit by Michael Bérubé and set aside $1000 of
chapter resources to pay for his travel expenses." The motion passed unanimously. The
Second
Consultation: There is not one
scheduled for this semester. Possible
topics for discussion at consultation include the new implementation of fees
for the use of recreational facilities at the
President’s Advisory Committee on Issues of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity: Dr. Karen Berkman was present to update the group on what the situation is at universities nationwide regarding benefits for domestic partners. She offered the assistance of herself and the group she represents, including any necessary research.
Reports:
a. Treasurer: “We have money.” Dorn needs someone to volunteer to be the treasurer for next year.
b. Grievances: Now the BOT agenda grievance will go forward. Hoping for grievance training next semester.
c. Newsletter: McColm mentioned there will be one more BiWeekly this year.
Other
Business: The
Good of the Order: Jim Cebulski gave thanks to those who were able to attend his retirement celebration two weeks ago.
Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 1:54 p.m.
UFF USF Chapter
January 26, 2007
Attendance: B. Welker, S. Wohlmuth, S. Permuth, B. Ingalls,
G. McColm, S. Dorn, R. Weatherford, M.
Adoption of the Agenda: The agenda was adopted as presented.
Bargaining:
There will be a bargaining session at 1 p.m. which would probably coincide with the latter part of the chapter meeting. Bargaining is not so far behind as it feels; last year the TA was on January 20, 2006. The UFF team only has one proposal, so bargaining might be over really quickly.
Consultation:
Three dates were offered.
The group realized that the only one that would work was Thursday,
February 15th. Agenda items
include gender equity, instructor promotion track, reclassification of
employees, the
Chapter Elections:
There are not enough candidates for the number of seats the
chapter will receive from UFF in
State Elections:
It was noted that plenty of members statewide have no idea who the current state president is. Voting will be done online this time. The committee that was formed to publicize Weatherford’s candidacy will need to publicize the necessity of actually going online to vote. Last day of voting is March 20th. The Bi-Weekly could explain the entire voting process with the pertinent details, such as the fact that in order to vote online, one will need information from a letter sent to members’ homes from the state office.
Financial Oath:
The Board of Trustees has promulgated a ‘Code of Conduct for Financial Functions’ that is to be signed by anyone who has financial duties at the university. The Faculty Senate decided not to approve the document and recommended that it not be signed. A motion was made, seconded and amended that the Chapter will submit this Code of Financial Conduct to impact bargaining, and will file a chapter grievance over its implementation as well. After discussion, the motion as amended (to include the language for the grievance) passed unanimously.
Reports:
Treasurer: The Treasurer reports that we are solvent.
Grievances: There will be a Grievance Training session on Feb. 21.
Newsletter: The election will get coverage in both the Biweekly and Uncommon Sense.
Membership: There are approximately 6-7 new members signed up during the last two weeks.
Other Business: none
Good of the Order: none
The meeting adjourned at 1:30 pm.
Submitted by J. Martin & G. McColm on Feb. 24, 2007
UFF/USF Chapter Meeting
February 9, 2007
Attendance: J. Martin, S. Lee, S. Ramírez
Wohlmuth, J. Noonan, M.
Adoption of the Agenda: The agenda was adopted as presented, with M.
Bargaining:
B. Welker and the group discussed the latest proposals and their implications for the continuing bargaining sessions.
Elections:
The election material packets are completed and will be ready for mailing tomorrow. They should be in the mail by the following Monday, and be received by the following Monday, February 19th. Mailing lists will be made available to all candidates in every contested election, with the caveat that any expenses are to be paid by the candidate(s). Votes will be counted at the March 9th chapter meeting.
Consultation:
There is still no date set for consultation during spring semester.
Reports:
Treasurer: There is still a large amount in the chapter account.
Grievances: Grievance
training will be on Wednesday, February 28 from noon to 3 in EDU 314. One should send an email to Mark
Newsletter: The newsletter just went out. The article on the Code of Financial Conduct was sent to chairs in Education, Engineering and Medicine.
Membership: Fifteen to 18 attended the first tenure workshop and there are 12 signed up for the second, to be on February 19th. Comments showed that the workshop was loved by attendees; all wanted it to be longer. These tenure and promotion workshops are for union members only.
Other Business: The bargaining surveys are being distributed via departmental meetings only, in order to take advantage of the membership recruitment opportunity they afford. The survey is not online yet.
The meeting adjourned at approximately 1:15 pm.