We had another great faculty turnout for our bargaining session with Administration on Monday, February 13. Thank you to all who were able to find time in their busy schedule to make it out in support of FUSA and the bargaining team. For those who were unable to make to the session on a Monday at 1pm (when many faculty are teaching classes), we understand and we appreciate all the well wishes for FUSA going in to bargaining.
Recall that Dr. Atwater reached out with a desire to resume bargaining in the hope of avoiding impasse. FUSA took this as a good faith gesture toward a resolution and accepted, with the caveat that the College needed to bring an economics proposal in order to avoid going to impasse. This is what they pulled out of their bag:
They had no new economics proposal. After the College served up this nothing burger topped with a big squirt of bad faith bargaining–which we paid for with our time–FUSA said “See you at impasse.” See the official FUSA response to membership emailed by FUSA President, Sherry Sippel, and stay tuned for updates and next steps!
UFF news
Your UFF Senators are preparing for the Statewide Senate meeting this coming weekend Feb 18-19. This is where Senators from all state chapters convene to do the business of United Faculty of Florida which includes passing the budget, resolutions, committee assignments, and reporting from the bargaining councils, and committee work, among other things. There are also meetings most evenings this week leading up to Senate which focus respectively on bargaining, contract enforcement, organizing, government relations, membership, leadership, equity, diversity, & inclusion. These meetings are not restricted to senators but are OPEN TO ALL MEMBERS. Check your personal email for messages concerning “UFF 2023 Senate Super Week” for details.
To close, we all know it has been a dizzying, trying start to the year with all of the political attacks on higher education in Florida. I’d like to leave you with two examples of how UFF, and in particular president Andrew Gothard, have been out front, pushing back, and fighting for all faculty in Florida.
- Florida’s public universities are under assault – Inside Higher Ed article
- UFF President Gothard on DeSantis’ plans for Diversity Equity and Inclusion at Florida’s Higher Ed institutions (The Florida Roundup podcast – second half of the episode, roughly at 30:55)
Faculty United Service Association 