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Faculty negotiations survey created
Executive Board meets to create survey for faculty about negotiations and to plan negotiations team -
Negotiations team forms
Negotiations team meets for first time to discuss survey results and negotiations topics -
Negotiations team meets again
Negotiations team finalizes first meeting agenda and goals. The team continues to meet and correspond in person and virtually to discuss proposals and exchange ideas and opinions, often multiple times a week. -
First negotiations meeting, First agreement
Faculty and admin share goals and agree to upload proposals by noon the day before a meeting. The first agreement is to work on department chair language. There is a grievance out due to admin's attempt to reduce all dept. chairs to 3 CHE’s without discussion or agreement with Faculty Association--the absolute lowest amount allowed by contract. -
Faculty present first proposal
SSCFA's proposal increases the number of department chairs to 15 to improve communication and give all departments a voice. It proposes all chairs receive 6 CHE’s to cover their time commitments and to be comparable to other colleges. Larger departments receive additional CHE’s based on a formula. Admin. and Association agree to compare SSC to Prairie State College (PSC). -
Admin shows unwillingness to bargain
Admin suggests release time for duties that chairs do outside of the job description. Admin refuse coordinator duty language that would be annually evaluated in the contract. This is a refusal to bargain over work conditions and pay. Admin wants NO minimum number of chairs, stating they should be able to restructure whenever they want. SSCFA brings up co-governance. Admin replies we can’t put it in the contract because it would tie their hands. They say we have enough co-governance. -
SSCFA FOIA proves admin wrong
Admin refuses faculty's suggestion to meet twice a week. Admin wants all coordinators and chairs to have equal number of CHE’s. They cite Prairie State as a model. However, faculty presents a FOIA from PSC that shows varying CHEs for coordinators. PSC has coordinators in almost every dept. and 13 dept. chairs. -
One week remaining, no dept chair agreement
Admin. reminds everyone dept. chair language needs to be finished by next week. Sticking points are non-agreement of additional CHE’s for departments with large numbers of faculty/adjuncts and not having language requiring a minimum number of dept. chairs. Admin. continues to refuse to consider adding any language to the contract about coordinators. -
Union attempts to get deal with concession
*Union concedes to admin to reduce dept. chairs to 9 from 11 in attempt to get a deal. * To speed the process, union wants to negotiate the dept. chair proposal after a sidebar but admin refuses to negotiate in real time, only wanting to exchange proposals between meetings. Admin continues to demand NO limit on the minimum number of chairs, stating they should be able to restructure whenever they want to. -
Period: to
Deadline missed: No dept chairs for summer
Admin is unable to meet any time this week, which closes any possibility of reaching a deal before the summer semester. -
Department chair agreement reached
We have a proposal agreement. **Admin agrees to language that there is a minimum number of dept. chairs (9). SSCFA concedes to admin’s determination of extra pay based on dept. size. This will mean no additional CHE’s for any dept. SSCFA concedes that CTE dept. chairs get 3 CHEs due to coordinators helping dept. chairs.** Coordinators frequently referenced by admin. but they won’t discuss their duties being in the contract. Discussions of non-financial language in the contract begin. -
Non-financial language negotiations begin
Discussion of prof. emeritus constraints, office hours, sabbatical language, and virtual sick days. Lack of college committees meeting is discussed as union proposes putting it in the contract. Association brings up giving coordinators a vote in curriculum committee and admin asks us to table that topic. -
Proposals accepted and rejected
Proposal accepted: admin accepts minor changes that request a written explanation of the reasons why sabbaticals are not offered in an academic year. Proposal accepted: Admin accept three virtual office hours. Proposal rejected: Virtual sick days rejected by admin. Additional concerns of SSCFA are discussed. Admin interested but deem them procedural, not contractual: Marketing committee, universal free period, VP-faculty meetings, and President-faculty meetings. -
Further proposals from both sides
SSCFA proposes increasing individual faculty development monies, increasing substitute pay, adding an extra year to the five-year retirement incentive, lowering class sizes, increasing cap on CHEs, additional CHEs for SSCFA, and a parental leave policy. Admin requests all of our financial proposals at one time. Admin propose sick leave language change, PLFAWA proposal, and personal health and family hardship language change. -
SSCFA submits all financial proposals
In good faith, we concede to language requiring doctors note after three consecutive absences. Admin rejects proposal to remove F2F class requirement. Admin refuses to discuss our additional attempt to discuss coordinators. We present our salary schedule with uniform percentages for vertical and horizontal movement and ask to have masters degree with no experience be $55,000. This would make us comparable to surrounding colleges. Faculty submits six additional financial proposals. -
Period: to
Admin fail to provide financial proposal
Admin cannot provide a salary proposal because the president is on vacation. We have been negotiating for three months. -
Still no salary proposal from admin
Admin cannot provide a salary proposal because the comptroller is on vacation this week. They upload their other proposals late, after the noon deadline. Admin again rejects coordinator language addition to contract. Admin rejects faculty's development money, overload, and retirement incentive proposals. Admin counters class size and SSCFA CHE proposals. Admin states we will not be able to make our salaries comparable to other colleges in this contract. -
Period: to
Meeting canceled: still no salary proposal
We do not meet because admin cannot have a salary proposal this week because of the president's and comptroller's vacations. We have been negotiation for 3.5 months. -
Admin give first salary proposal
Admin finally gives their first salary proposal: starting masters is $40,000. They propose increasing the current limit of step 7 for new hires to come in at up to step 16, which would place many of them above current tenured faculty. Admin suggests adding a professional license as a part of lane placement Admin suggested cuts in grants are the reason that they present the pay salary they do. -
SSCFA presents second salary proposal
SSSCFA presents our second salary proposal. We show how our admin. are paid comparable or better than PSC but our faculty are considerably underpaid compared to PSC. We show how faculty's percentage of the budget is decreasing every year, and faculty retirement money is being taken and spent in other places. Admin suggests $880,000 in retirement savings is not to be kept in the faculty budget. They again state we cannot fix the budget in one contract, citing new expenses and financial issues. -
Admin presents second salary proposal
Admin presents second salary proposal. It is the same as the first, plus an increase of 0.5% per year on the salary scale on years 2 and 3 and 4, a 0.25% increase from their first offer. Admin shows how their salaries are smaller compared to PSC based on new data. Still, many admin are paid higher than PSC. Not one single faculty member is paid more than any faculty at PSC on same experience and degrees. With almost no sign of movement, we ask for, and admin agrees to, a mediator. -
First meeting with mediator
We meet with David, a federal mediator, for the first time. We spend the meeting getting him up to speed on where we are at. We accept admin's counter of 2 CHEs for SSCFA. However, salary has become the primary sticking point. We explain there hasn't been a COLA increase since 2009. Admin talks of clearing false narratives while presenting their own, such as claiming our proposed salary numbers are 25% higher than PSC and Morton. Each group meets individually with David. -
Second meeting with mediator
SSCFA presents proposals on parental leave, tuition reimbursement, and distance delivery. We present our third salary proposal. We show PSC's salary schedule to demonstrate that our pay is nowhere close to theirs. Admin excuses their pay by citing costs of electricity and building maintenance. After meeting separately, we reconvene, and admin says they do not want a strike. -
Third meeting with mediator
Admin accepts our parental leave and distance delivery proposals. They also agree with raising tuition reimbursement. Admin presents third salary proposal. It has hardly changed, keeping starting masters salary the same while raising annual COLA by 0.23%. They insist their efforts are in good-faith. They insist their proposal is equal to PSC and Morton. We sidebar. Mediator reports back with admin's unwillingness to move starting salary higher. -
Fourth meeting with mediator scheduled
Nobody is able to find a mutual meeting time for nearly a month. Lead negotiators from both teams agree to meet individually in the interim.