Category Archive

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7)      IUP grievances related to distance education, which impacts over 100 IUP faculty members, were withdrawn even though IUP-APSCUF strongly objected to this.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

APSCUF Colleagues:

On the 24th , 25th and 26th of April we will all have the opportunity to register our vote for the authorization of a strike by the faculty of PASSHE if contract negotiations fail to produce satisfactory results. This is a vote to empower APSUCF’s State Executive Committee to call for a strike when Executive Committee in consultation with the Negotiations Team deem that further negotiations will not be fruitful.

At this point in the process the best action you can take is to vote and vote to authorize for a strike. We need to have all members behind our Negotiations Team and State Leaders.

The negotiations team has been meeting since last August sometimes with the negotiators representing PASSHE and sometimes internally to prepare proposals representing the interests of faculty. We exchanged proposals with PASSHE back in January. As of this date, there has been absolutely no movement by PASSHE on any of their proposals. The salary proposal by PASSHE is still 0,0,0,0 for all four years of the next contract. The PASSHE proposal regarding health care co-payment of premium is still triple what we currently pay.

The need for you to vote and vote positively for a strike authorization should be obvious to everyone. We need to send a strong message to PASSHE that we want and deserve a fair and just contract. Our position of no contract no work has already had positive effects. We have exchanged proposals and have in effect forced PASSHE to be at a point in negotiations with more than 6 months before the expiration of our contract. This is unprecedented for us. In past negotiations we normally did not exchange proposals until nearly a year after our contract expired.

Last time we took a strike authorization vote, we had a 95% turnout by IUP faculty. The aggregated vote at the state level was 93% positive. We need to have a better turnout this time and equally or better positive vote for authorizing a strike if needed.

The polling locations will be as follows:

Tuesday the 24th - Ackerman Hall
Wednesday the 25th – Pierce Hal
Thursday the 26th – Ackerman Hall

The polls will be open from 8:00 – 5:00 each day.

You must be a registered APSCUF member to vote. If you wish to join, membership cards will be available at the polls.

*Absentee Ballot Information*

APSCUF provides the following process for casting an absentee ballot:

1. The APSCUF member is responsible for anticipating absence during a strike authorization or contract ratification vote.

2. The voter must secure an absentee ballot, ballot envelope and stamped envelope pre-addressed to the local chapter office from the local chapter office. On the return pre-addressed stamped mail envelope there will be a place for the member to sign and to print their name; *failing to sign this return mailing envelope will invalidate the ballot*. The ballots and envelopes will be available from the APSCUF office on Tuesday April 17th and must be received by 5:00 PM on Thursday April 26th .

3. The voter marks the ballot, puts it in the ballot envelope, seals it and a) places it in the addressed, stamped envelope, *signs and prints his/her name on the mail envelope* as indicated and mails the envelope or b) otherwise delivers it to the local chapter office.

4. Upon receiving the mailed in or otherwise delivered absentee ballot, the office manager will check for the member’s name and signature, initial the member’s name on the membership list, and deposit the ballot in the ballot box. All absentee ballots must be received in the local chapter office by the end of the balloting period for the local chapter.

The Faculty Education for Action Committee, chaired by David Chambers will be carefully monitoring the polls in an attempt to ensure we have as large a turnout as possible. We will be contacting faculty to encourage them to cast their vote so we can meet or exceed our previous turnout.

Again, we ask you to both come out to vote and vote positively for the strike authorization. Please encourage your colleagues to do so.

In Solidarity,

Rob Mutchnick, IUP-APSCUF President

Francisco Alarcón, IUP-APSCUF Vice President

IUP-APSCUF president APSCUF Colleagues,

On Monday the 23rd of April from 11:30 – 1:00 we will be engaging in informational picketing around Sutton Hall. Your participation is required so that local management and the state system get the right message. We want a fair and just contract, and we want it now!

We need a very, very strong turnout on Monday for two reasons. 1) Local management will report back to state how many faculty members turn out. They will use this as a way to gauge our resolve. If they conclude that we cannot even turn out for informational picketing for 90 minutes, they will know we will never be able to begin/maintain a strike regardless of when it is called.

2) IUP is also being watched by the other 13 campuses. We have always been the leader and our sister institutions continue to look to us for leadership in this area.

We need to set the example not only for our sister campuses, but also to demonstrate our resolve to the administration, both locally and at the state level.

Let us know that you will be joining us for the informational picketing set for Monday the 23rd by emailing David Chambers (chambers@iup.edu). We will have picket signs ready and available in front of Sutton Hall at 11:30.

Join us and be counted.

All the media outlets have been contacted. A strong showing will assist the negotiations team in showing the state the seriousness of the issue and the need to negotiate.

We look forward to seeing you all on Monday from 11:30 – 1:00 as we engage in informational picketing around Sutton Hall.

In Solidarity,

Rob Mutchnick
Iup-APSCUF, president

David Chambers
Chair, Faculty Education for Action Committee

The Chancellor’s Office has recently released information about the “bonus” money each PASSHE university will receive as a result of how well they measured up to the performance indicators. Just over $37 million is being distributed. IUP is receiving $3,930,131 and ranks 4th in total dollars received.

While we did not do as well as we would have liked, on the surface it appears we did not do all that badly. However Ramona Nelson, a faculty member at Slippery Rock did an analysis of the data and the picture changes dramatically.

Ramona reports that 9 of the PASSHE universities received “funds per student” below the average of $348.81 for the system. Taking into account the “funds per student” IUP’s rank drops to 9th (for more info please see the October Newsletter)

Questions about the value of the performance indicators have been raised by APSCUF and now some university presidents are also beginning to ask questions.

If the performance indicators are not going to go away maybe we should consider partnering with local management to try to figure out how to better position IUP so we can improve our ranking and share of the “bonus” money?

This may be something we should talk about at our next Rep. Council meeting.

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you have had the opportunity to not ony have a restful, but also a productive summer. As we near the beginning of the fall semester I want to remind you of our general membership meeting that will take place in Gorell Hall on Friday August 25th beginning at 10:00 AM.

This year our general membership meeting is especially important, because it is the first of a number of meetings we will be holding through out the year as we proceed with negotiating our next contract.

At this general membership meeting, you will meet your new local APSCUF leadership team, as well as State APSCUF President, Pat Heilman, who will be in attendance. One of the major topics of discussion will be the subject of negotiations. Pat and members of the faculty team will be providing an update of what has taken place this summer.

There are a number of other topics of importance that will be
Discussed, and we will vote on some proposed by-law changes (copies of which you should have already received).

I ask that you please attend this meeting and bring any Questions/issues you may have so we can have a open discussion.

In solidarity
Robert Mutchnick
IUP-APSCUF President