Minutes of Board Meeting (July 27, 2005)
Present: Ash, Barker, Brewer, Clawson, Gore, Ishii, Jensen, Lenson,
Lovett, McCarthy, Page, Paynter, Turner, Boyer, Reardon, Wulkan
Absent: Adams, Barringer, Barrington, Chakravartty, Hemment, Janaswamy, Lawrence, Luce, McDermott, Moffitt, Robinson, Spencer
1. Introductions and Welcome to new Board members
2. Approve minutes of 6/1/5/05 - Unanimous
3. Political Report
(a) Health Care - cut in our share of premiums is a big victory. MTA pushed Legislature to honor sunset
provision in earlier budget (Thanks, Beth!). We should fight Romney bill which would allow cities and
towns to remove health care from collective bargaining and unilaterally reduce employer contribution to
50%.
(b) Retro - MTA's insider strategy is appropriate approach for now; Executive Director Ed Sullivan will
be meeting with Senate President Travaglini and House Speaker DiMasi in August. He is confident we
will get the retro and will be pushing for it all to be appropriated this fall.
4. Contract Settlement
We reviewed the terms of the settlement, noted that it is a strong
contract with minimal concessions, and discussed the Sick Bank and
salary provisions in more depth. We noted that while there is nothing
in the contract about tenure track faculty, we used bargaining to push
this issue successfully in other forums. A few points to note for the
future:
Salary anomalies could result from increased promotional increments.
Members need to be better informed about the availability of PMYR funds.
Who hires contract faculty (DPC or Chair) varies from department to department.
Vote to recommend acceptance of contract by membership: Unanimous
Ratification Process: A lengthy discussion about the relative importance of
Members having access to the exact contract language (which is not yet done)
Getting the contract ratified as quickly as possible
Using the contract gains as a way to increase engagement with the union
Doing the vote by mail, as opposed to at an on-site poll
Decisions: Use a Mail ballot (vote 9-2)
Mail the ballots as soon as possible (vote 10-1)
Send email to unit when contract language is on website
Ballots due back roughly 3 weeks after they are mailed
Hold an information session before ballots are due back
5. New Faculty/Librarian Orientations
Board members signed up to attend sessions with MSP staff and explain the Union and its benefits to new hires.
Other agenda items deferred:
Higher Ed Advocacy
Board and Activists Retreat and MTA pilot program for “Organizing Locals”
Visa Fees (see attached memo)
Faculty Recruitment and Diversity
