Dear APSCUF Colleagues,

As most of you know, it has been a hectic summer in terms of what has happened with our contract.  As a member of the negotiations team, I was very involved with the whole process and would like to share with you my position as it relates to the agreement on which you will soon be voting.

I was very concerned about the tentative agreement that the negotiations team was considering on the 2nd of July. I voted NO on accepting and recommending the agreement to the State APSCUF Executive Council. I realize that the salary and health benefits package is appealing to those still on steps. However, there are other articles and side letters in the contract that make the overall future of the academy bleak to say the least. Listed below is a sampling of the articles and side letters that cause me to NOT recommend the agreement:

1)      The agreement allows management to hire temporary faculty in numbers equal to the number of full-time tenure track faculty. Right now, 23% of the IUP faculty is temporary. Under the new agreement, this could more than double to 50% with no controls. Management could hire and rehire temporary faculty members for an unlimited time period without being required to convert these positions to tenure track lines.

2)      The 2003 promoted faculty were not made whole as was indicated.  As you may recall, this was a top priority by the membership.

3)      Domestic partner benefits were agreed upon for same-sex partners only, leaving out opposite-sex partners.

4)      Closing of the indemnity health care option to new enrollees and, eventually, phasing out this plan, thereby reducing health care options for the membership

5)      Raising health care premium percentage that members pay in the fourth year of the contract, when overall rates do not justify increases (we have, in fact, saved the state money with the Health Care Cost Containment Committee).

6)      Changes in the distance education article that remove almost all incentives for faculty members to participate.  In addition, those faculty members who do participate will receive nothing in return.

7)      IUP grievances related to distance education, which impacts over 100 IUP faculty members, were withdrawn even though IUP-APSCUF strongly objected to this.

8)      Rank and tenure for managers, in and of itself, is not necessarily bad.  However, we gave

it away for absolutely nothing. When we were negotiating this item, we stipulated that the           price tag for it had to be summer school at current rates. The outcome–we received    nothing for this.

I strongly recommend that we vote NOT to accept the tentative agreement. If the tentative agreement is NOT ratified, we DO NOT have to strike. We can, and should, go back to the table to continue negotiations.

In Solidarity,

Rob Mutchnick