REP and Impasse

Dear Colleague,

Yesterday you received a message from Provost Glover in which he once again charges that the Union is responsible for your not being able to take advantage of the recently announced Retirement Enhancement Program. I wrote to you last week assuring you that this was not true. I want to reiterate that assurance and to tell you what the facts are.

When impasse was declared in the contract negotiations between the Union and the Board of Trustees last month, we made clear our readiness to continue to discuss all outstanding matters pending the impasse hearing scheduled for mid-December. Last week, we wrote to the representatives of the BOT repeating our offer. The fact that we have not even received a reply speaks for itself.

While the Union has no objection in principle to REP, it is charged with the responsibility of making sure through bargaining that it is structured and implemented in a way that provides protections for the rights and interests of the faculty. It is the administration's refusal to engage in such bargaining that stands in the way of your participating in this program.

As Provost Glover says in his message, the impasse will be settled by late January or early February. You should ask yourself why the administration has imposed an earlier application deadline for REP, when there is no legal or practical need to do so.

The impasse hearings will take place on the 14th and 15th of December. They are open to the public, and I urge you to attend what part of them you can to hear first-hand what the Union's proposals are on REP, as well as on other important unresolved issues, among them salaries, sabbaticals, FEO (the Faculty Enhancement opportunity program), SPPP (the Senior Professors Salary Plan), and intellectual property rights. On some of these, our proposals have been on the table for many months, with the administration refusing even to discuss them. We think they are reasonable and moderate proposals and are confident that the special magistrate will see them as such.

Sincerely,

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