:: By Shawn Gilmore, NTFC President :: March 3, 2017 ::
Colleagues:
With the weather up and down and the weeks getting a little long, NTFC is going strong.
After last week’s General Membership Meeting, we’ve been working more on our internal structures and outreach, especially as we’re now in a key phase of implementing the collective bargaining agreement that we signed last Spring. In the next months, our members are contractually eligible for the announced campus salary program, should received new and earlier forms of notice about their appointment status for the Fall, and many of our long-term NTT faculty should be getting a new kind of offer, a 1+1 contract type that should stabilize their employment. In addition, the salary floor for NTTs will rise in the Fall. We’re keeping an eye on these changes, and are in contact with members across campus about the various ways these parts are playing out.
This week, I met with UIUC’s new Interim Provost (John Wilkin) to introduce him to NTFC and make sure he was aware of the many moving parts that affect the employment of NTTs here. He let me know that the outgoing Provost left him with a good working knowledge about our last contract bargaining process, and that he was happy to stay engaged between contract cycles. As we work to develop these relationships with various administrators, I hope to allay some of their worries about engaging with unions, while reminding them that we will always work on behalf of our members’ interests.
Hope everyone is staying warm. Our regulars will be out for our weekly Happy Hour today, at or around 5pm, at our normal location, Quality Bar, in downtown Champaign. Come on out if you’re local to celebrate the end of the week!
In solidarity,
Shawn
