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Contract Gains by UC-AFT To Date

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Specific and transparent performance review criteria:
We have proposed, and UCOP has partially accepted, more specific review criteria and transparent standards for the excellence review, merit review, and the promotional review to Senior Continuing Lecturer.

Timely and more specific appointment letters:
Management agreed with us that they ought to provide appointment letters by a firm date. In addition, the appointment letters will have increased specificity regarding pay amounts and pay periods. However, President Drake’s negotiators have rescinded their previous, fully enforceable commitment that all appointment letters will be issued by May 1 on semester campuses and June 1 on semester campuses. Because they are now seeking exceptions to those dates, we no longer have confidence that their proposal will result in guaranteed timely appointment letters that give us enough time to plan our classes and our lives.

Credit Toward Continuing for Summer Session Teaching
We proposed that all Summer Session teaching be eligible for service credit toward Continuing Appointments. UCOP agreed to count Summer Session courses when a lecturer does not teach in every term of the regular academic year immediately prior to the summer session.

Expanded eligibility for paid medical leave:
After a shameful incident in which UC Irvine admin denied a distinguished Continuing Lecturer paid medical leave to have a brain tumor removed, management agreed to extend paid medical leave to all bargaining unit faculty with appointments of 66% or greater. This is an improvement from the 100% eligibility threshold in current contract language, but UC admin’s pervasive use of part-time and unbenefitted appointments means that most UC-AFT members may never be eligible for paid medical leave, even under this improved provision.

Increased support for unit members with children:
UCOP’s communications trumpet their expansion of Active Service-Modified Duties from two quarters/two semesters to three quarters/two semesters. While this is indeed an improvement for lecturers who are preparing to welcome and/or caring for a new child in their family, it is basically a correction of a previous inequity that provided a full academic year of ASMD for lecturers at UC Berkeley and UC Merced (semester campuses) and only ⅔ of an academic year for lecturers at every other quarter campus. The expansion of ASMD eligibility to include children of any age and the increase of paid childbearing leave from 6 weeks to 8 weeks mirror what Academic Senate faculty have received. Thus we are happy that, in this area, UCOP is responding to our call for non-tenure-track parity with tenure-track faculty. However, equality does not always generate equity. The new Pay for Family Care and Bonding program was offered to us in a take-it-or-leave-it fashion without an opportunity to bargain over its appropriateness and applicability for lecturers. (See the discussion of the failure to bargain in good faith above.) While this benefit is generally a positive development, it is only open to those lecturers who have worked 1,250 hours in the past year and are eligible for federal Family and Medical Leave, which excludes most lecturers. President Drake’s administration unlawfully refused to negotiate over details that would have guaranteed effective implementation for UC-AFT members. Now that the academic year has begun and lecturers are attempting to take advantage of the program, they are being denied their full rights because of UCOP’s refusal to bargain.

Expanded retirement and health benefits for Summer Session Lecturers:
After pressure at the table from our bargaining team, UC agreed to treat all lecturers across the state equally by expanding retirement and health benefits for Summer Session Lecturers:
• Summer session earnings for eligible Lecturers will count toward contributions made by UC and the Lecturer to UC's Tax-Deferred 403 (b) Retirement Plan.
• UC has agreed to pay the UC employer portion of the health benefits premium during the time an eligible Summer Session Lecturer is on pay status.

Stronger health and safety provisions:
At our insistence, UCOP agreed to add a new Health, Safety and Emergency Conditions article to our contract, outlining the rights and responsibilities of management and workers in the event an emergency is declared.

Professional development funding:
Management has agreed to increase the contribution amount to the annual pool from $200 per FTE to $250 per FTE. However, they refused to budge on instituting a new cap on year-to-year rollovers of unused professional development funds. Rolling over remaining funds from one year to the next allows for larger grants and projects to be funded, including course release for lecturers working on major scholarly projects. The rollover cap does not exist on most campuses now. The addition of a cap is a takeaway on most campuses.

Additional enhancements for Continuing Appointments:

UC has accepted our proposal to strengthen the career pathway by creating a timeline for promotion from Continuing Lecturer to Senior Continuing Lecturer. Upon promotion to Senior Continuing Lecturer, lecturers will receive a minimum 9% increase.

Note that Silas’s letter claims that UCOP has agreed to longer notice times for Senior Continuing Lecturers in the event of layoffs. This is false. Management’s proposal is for 12-month notice, the same notice period that Continuing Lecturers have now.