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Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
April 29, 2010
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peggy Codding, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Danny Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Haidee Lorrey, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.
Guests: Diane Frey AFT-MA, Clay Hoener, President Longy Faculty Union, Jonathan Kohler, Longy Faculty Union

1. Danny made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting and update the website. Marti seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.

2. Preliminary meeting to set-up language for proposals Tuesday May 25 at 4:00 pm. Bargaining team meeting Wednesday June 2 at 4:00 pm.

3. Guests: Diane Frey AFT-MA, Clay Hoener, President Longy Faculty Union, Jonathan Kohler, Longy Faculty Union. The campaign to have representation at Longy has been quite long and arduous. They are now at the table and have received a lot of push back from the administration. They read a resolution of support, that they have drawn up and would like us, to sign off on, Mike will send a copy of their resolution to all of us for review.

Mike: We cannot pass this resolution until the entire Executive Committee has had a chance to review and comment on the language that you presented, but we certainly support all of your efforts to give the Longy faculty a voice.

Beth: It is disappointing that one of our members was treated with disrespect when she came to speak to Longy faculty about Yeshiva issues.

We discussed the Longy situation and the struggles that they are currently facing establishing a faculty union. There have been representatives from our Union Executive Committee at a Longy meeting to share our insights into the development of a successful union. The main struggle facing Longy is that management at Longy is currently not recognizing the union. Management has limited the number of faculty that are allowed to join the union. The environment at Longy right now is toxic.

4. Benefits Committee report (Jackson, Rick and Wendy) with discussion of vote or statement in Friday’s meeting. Management wants to cut the defined benefit plan and push more money towards the 403b. This will put older faculty vs. newer faculty. Jackson made a motion that the we stay away from any vote during this meeting – we will address all of these issues during bargaining. Mike seconded the motion and we discussed the topic. Rick: let’s make an open ended recommendation to continue the discussion, Beth seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

Minutes from Union All-Faculty Meeting
April 22, 2010

Mike opened the meeting with a statement regarding the upcoming bargain and the important issues that we face. We have many proposals from last year and a few new ones. Mike and Larry met to discuss the bargaining terms, every Monday starting June 7, from 3-6; our committee will have a prep meeting from 2-3. We will be meeting in 855, 7th floor. All faculty are welcome to attend a session or two, please call or e-mail to confirm attendance, there are a limited number of seats.

Bargaining team: Mike Scott, Beth Denisch, Rick Applin, Marti Epstein, Jackson Schultz, Jonathan Holland, Will Silvio, and Jeff Perry: Danny Harrington and Prince Charles Alexander will be alternates, and Wendy Rolfe will be special counsel for part-time and benefits. Jeff Jacobsen will be our counsel; he has done all our contracts since 1986, Haidee Morris will also participate.

Larry Simpson anticipates we will be completed by July 4th, Mike is not as optimistic, we may go into October. Management opened their books last year, we asked them to open the books for us before we begin bargaining this summer, they essentially said NO. For us, that means they can accept all of our proposals.

We are going to basically give management the same package from last year with a few additions: clean up language regarding wage renegotiation, have seniority be a primary factor regarding lay-offs, benefit threshold reduced for part-time, weighting system change for performance (Ear Training) and classroom faculty, more conversions from part-time to full-time (with a minimum years of service at 5, or perhaps after a certain numbers of automatic conversion, other criteria?), defined benefit plan for FT be accessible after the 3-year transition contract, increase PT benefit with the 403b, clean up language around the 3-year contract, and more.

We discussed PT conversion at length with many good ideas; we will put together several options for bargaining. Mike moved to adjourn.

Minutes from Department Rep. Meeting
April 15, 2010
UEC Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Danny Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Haidee Lorrey, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.

1. Mike opened the meeting, Rick made a motion to accept the minutes from last meeting, Jonathan seconded, and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes. Rick made a motion to accept the revised notes from the Union/Management meeting, Jonathan seconded, and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.

2. Mike continued with a discussion on the upcoming bargain. We will begin June 7, the first Monday in June. We will meet 3-6 pm and will not meet July 5. The negotiating team will meet an hour before the bargaining sessions and Mike will continue to send out the weekly updates as we progress. We will not accept the results from last year. There are a few dates that stand out – Opening Day is one – Management wants to get the contract done by that day. This may be a source of leaverage for us – perhaps not – we may need to go beyond that date – in which case we will need to rally the faculty and increase the communication from the negotiating team to the rest of the faculty. Rich Grudzinski will lead the communication to the Division Reps, then the Department Reps, then to the department. Please send in your cell phone numbers and e-mail address (home, not college) to Will Silvio (wsilvio@berklee.edu) so we can get in touch with everyone as soon as possible.

3. Management will not be opening their books for us this year, as they did last year, when we saw their book, it did to prove to us that they could not pay us. It looks like they have the money this year, but they do not want to show us. Most likely we will be going into September or beyond for bargaining. We need to keep the faculty involved throughout – we have always had tremendous faculty support and we need to keep that happening. We need to keep communication up – the team will be working hard through August – then we will need the department reps to get involved.

4. New items for the bargain – check with your department in the next few weeks to see if there are any new items. We will propose Faculty Property rights – to control your work, as of now the college owns all the work that faculty do to create a class. Evaluations are also an issue, there should be a warning before an Unsatisfactory is given – faculty need an opportunity to address the issues before the evaluation process, perhaps a verbal communication before a written one. There is a model already in place for public school systems; perhaps we can use that as a starting point. Chair observation is another issue – we need to get specific language in the contract – announce before the visit and faculty get to choose the class that the chair attends.

5. We will send all the Department Reps a list of all the proposals that the Executive Committee will be presenting during bargaining. Please contact your department in the next few weeks to see if your faculty have any issues for bargaining.