Domestic Partners Health Beneits

As you may have read in the paper this morning, State Representative Larry Cretul has threatened legislation against the UF Board of Trustees if they approve an administration proposal for providing health benefits to the unmarried domestic partners of UF employees. The United Faculty of Florida expresses our unequivocal support for President Machen's effort to ensure fairness in the workplace and for the principle underlying his proposal: equitable benefits for all UF employees.

UFF has fought persistently for nearly three decades now — often long before others were willing to do so — to try to ensure equal treatment for UF faculty and professional staff regardless of sexual orientation or marital status. We have made forceful proposals at the bargaining table and lobbied untiringly on these issues, with some success — even though we repeatedly confronted resistance from previous administrations. The current administration has now moved closer to the position we have advocated for years: the need to adopt the progressive domestic-partner policies practiced at many of the nation's best universities, businesses, and municipalities.

Although the benefits plan that the administration is currently proposing falls far short of providing full equality — and far short of what UF faculty task forces have recommended — it is a significant gesture in the right direction. And the administration and the faculty will have a chance to improve the current proposal in upcoming collective bargaining negotiations.

UFF stands with the university administration in its attempt to overcome past prejudice and parochialism, and we call on the Board of Trustees to approve this benefits initiative, despite Representative Cretul's opposition.

Sincerely,

Connie Shehan, President
United Faculty of Florida
238 Norman Hall, PO Box 117055
Phone: 392-0274
Email: president@uff-uf.org