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[last updated: January 13 2018]

Legislative Update

legislative update The Florida legislature's session continues. During the subsequent two months, the House and Senate will negotiate a state budget and consider hundreds of bills.

Bills of interest to UFF will be posted to our web site.

Check the progress of the following:

HB 7055 - Attack on Instructional Personnel Unions
HB 423 - Higher Ed Appropriations
SB 1234 - Free Expression on Campus
SB 1048 - Senate, Guns on Campus
HB 1419 - House, Guns on Campus
CRC - Constitutional Revision Commission

How FIU Spends Its Money - 2017

This report presents an analysis of the trends in Florida International University (FIU) expenditures on faculty and administration personnel for the academic years 2013-14 through 2016-17. Particular attention is given to the changes in the number, composition, and salaries of faculty and administrators at FIU in the context of increasing university expenditures and rising student enrollment, and changes in tuition revenue during the academic years 2013-14 through 2016-17.

Data show that FIU personnel decisions have contributed towards administrative bloat between 2013-14 and 2016-17, expanding the resources devoted to administration at the expense of instruction, research, and service. During this period, administrative personnel hires and and total personnel expenditures have outpaced those of faculty. Furthermore, faculty’s share of personnel expenditures has declined as the share of administration personnel expenditures has increased.

Previous reports were produced in 2004, 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2014. This report extends the analysis of FIU’s expenditures through the 2016-17 academic year and supports prior findings of administrative bloat at FIU.

Download the 2017 report in PDF format.

[last updated: August 31 2017]

Knowing your Rights and Understanding Common Issues

The first e-mail blast of every month will present one topic from the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that affects every FIU faculty member. The creation of this series is the result of a suggestion at our UFF Spring Chapter meeting. It is part of our ongoing effort to inform all faculty not only of their rights under the CBA, but to inform all faculty of the value of being a UFF member. Our CBA is the outcome of years of dedicated UFF Bargaining teams who see value in protecting our rights. Lastly, this is a legally binding agreement and must be adhered to by all parties.

Types of Leave

These are the types of leaves available to FIU faculty.

Holidays
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Entitlements
Parental Leave
Leaves Due to Illness/Injury
Annual Leave
Administrative Leaves
Bereavement Leave
Leave Without Pay

This week we explore Sick Leave.

In future weeks we will explore other specific types of leaves.

[last updated: June 18 2016]

Sick Leave

UFF-BOT
POLICY LEAVES

Purpose: To establish policy and procedures concerning employee leaves.

Policy:

8. Leaves Due to Illness/Injury
1. Sick Leave
2. Job-Related Illness/Injury
3. Compulsory Leave

Only (a) Sick Leave is in this post. Next week: Job-Related Illness/Injury

Accrual

Full-time employee receives 4 hours of sick leave for each pay period
Part-time receives sick leave at rate proportionate to the percent of time employed

Uses

Personal illness or exposure to contagious disease which would endanger others
Personal health care provider appointments
Illness/Injury of immediate family including same-sex domestic partner
Death of immediate family member including Bereavement Leave

Certification

If sick leave request exceeds 4 consecutive days or if pattern of absence is documented, FIU may require certification by health care provider for the absences

Payment

Employee with less than 10 years of service shall not be paid for unused sick leave
Compensation shall not be given if employment begins after July 1, 2006
Compensation is at the current regularly hourly rate of pay for 1/8 of all unused sick leave accrued prior to October 1, 1973, plus 1/4 of all unused sick leave accrued after October 1, 1973 provided that accrued leave since 1973 does not exceed 480 hours
Employee may request in writing that sick leave be retained pending re-employment
Payments shall be made in lump sum
In the event of death, payment for unused sick leave shall be made to employee’s beneficiary, estate, or as provided by law

See: page 74 of CBA 2015 – 2018 for further information

Grievance chair: Lauren Christos

[last updated: June 18 2016]

Review more of your rights on the Contract Page

The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much

BOULDER, Colo. - ONCE upon a time in America, baby boomers paid for college with the money they made from their summer jobs. Then, over the course of the next few decades, public funding for higher education was slashed. These radical cuts forced universities to raise tuition year after year, which in turn forced the millennial generation to take on crushing educational debt loads, and everyone lived unhappily ever after.

CFHE

Join the campaign for the Future of Higher Education

The Campaign for the Future of Higher Education is organized around SEVEN CORE PRINCIPLES that must define quality higher education for the 21st century.

The mission of the campaign is to ENSURE THAT AFFORDABLE QUALITY HIGHER EDUCATION is accessible to all sectors of our society in the coming decades. This is a time of great change in higher education.

Visit the CFHE site.

[last updated: October 30 2016]

Arbitration

In the past few years, UFF saved dozens of tenured and non-tenured faculty jobs by challenging "arbitrary and capricious" layoffs and non-renewals through arbitration.

Cary Nelson, the national president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), summed up the significance of these victories:

"[The arbitration wins are] confirmation of the power a union contract has to preserve faculty job security... Even in those states that regard tenure itself as the equivalent of a contractual agreement, a legally enforceable union contract is still much more secure."

(Inside Higher Ed, 11/08/10)

Important Changes in United Faculty of Florida Grievance Representation Policy

At its September 2008 Senate meeting, the statewide United Faculty of Florida (UFF) revised its grievance representation policy in response to liability and legal concerns. Effective immediately, UFF will not provide grievance representation to faculty who were not dues-paying UFF members at the time when the grievable incident occurred.

All faculty have the right to file an individual grievance, but those who were not UFF members when the incident occurred must represent themselves or retain an attorney. UFF retains the sole and exclusive right to invoke arbitration; non-members will not automatically have the right to pursue a remedy beyond the grievance process. If UFF agrees to allow a non-member to proceed to arbitration, the non-member will be responsible for the cost of the arbitration - $2000 to $4000 - and must provide his or her own attorney, the cost of which can exceed $20,000. If a non-member informs the chapter of an incident, UFF may file a grievance on behalf of the chapter if it is believed to have chapter-wide impact on the enforcement of the collective bargaining agreement; however, that is at the discretion of the chapter.