NTFC Local 6546 AFT / IFT

Non-Tenure Faculty Coalition, University of Illinois

NTFC Supports Higher Ed Workers Fighting for Unemployment Insurance

Each year, many of our campus workers at the University of Illinois struggle to get by. Food Service Workers and Building Service Workers, among others, often are “laid off” during the summers when the students leave. Though they typically receive work again when the fall instruction resumes, they are ineligible to apply for unemployment benefits during the summer period. Normally, this is already a very difficult financial circumstance–but the pandemic has made this situation even worse for many. Our friends from AFSCME have asked us to support their push to get Illinois legislators to amend the unemployment insurance restrictions, which would allow much needed relief to come to non-instructional higher ed workers at UIUC and elsewhere. Below is a copy of the letter that we are sending to the office of Governor JB Pritzker calling on him to help lead the charge to provide unemployment benefits to all higher ed workers over the summer.

You can get involved too! Our friends from AFSCME are asking us to call our legislators to ask them to support these changes. More details are in the image above.

Dear Governor Pritzker, 

We are writing on behalf of the thousands of non-instructional educational employees (e.g., teacher aides, building and grounds workers, food service workers, bus drivers) in elementary, secondary, and higher education to request that you take action to ensure that these workers are eligible for summer unemployment benefits. 

Unlike other seasonally unemployed workers, non-instructional education workers are currently ineligible to apply for benefits. This is the case even though they face many of the same challenges as other seasonally unemployed workers.It is nearly impossible to find work in the 2-3 month period over the summer while they’re unemployed, receiving low wages, and receiving few benefits. These benefits are already crucial in normal times given their low wages. With the added financial stressors of the pandemic, it is more important than ever to allow non-instructional education workers access to unemployment benefits.

The CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) provides funding from the federal government to reimburse up to 50% of the costs of unemployment benefits for workers from March 13th through December 31st of this year. This funding will offset any educational employer costs.

We are asking that you please take action to amend the Unemployment Insurance Act (820 ILCS 420) to allow non-instructional educational employees to apply for unemployment insurance. 

Michael Odom, President

Amanda Bales, Vice President

Non-Tenure Faculty Coalition Local #6546 AFT/IFT/AAUP

COVID-19 Impact Bargaining Update

The transition to online-only teaching, the closing down of campus, and other, significant changes to working conditions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in two recent bargaining sessions between representatives of NTFC and the administration. Like many other higher education unions, we’re now working towards a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the administration to get these items guaranteed by a written agreement.

Items to be Covered by the MOU

There has been some informal discussion of what this fall will look like in terms of in-person/online-only instruction. On this topic, the administration indicated at our most recent meeting on May 1st that, should any in-person instruction resume, faculty would likely be given the opportunity to determine for themselves what risks they are willing to take. It was indicated that those over 60 or those who are otherwise put especially at risk by the virus will, in any case, likely not be required to resume in person instruction.

On the whole, we are confident that future bargaining sessions will continue in this positive direction.

The administration was amenable to the below proposals/discussions:

  • Promotional Case Progress: we’re working to ensure that departments take into account the lack of peer to peer reviewing, the closure of labs, the closure of libraries, and the special circumstances affecting working conditions when considering promotions. We especially want the administration to instruct departments to consider the special circumstances and how they relate to promotions for those under or working toward Teaching Assistant Professor and Research Assistant Professor titles.
  • ICES Forms: ICES Forms are slated to not be included in promotion dossiers, per the request of individual faculty members to have them removed. While this was earlier communicated by the Provost, we’re proposing this language be included in our MOU so that we can hold the administration to this promise for several years down the road.
  • Mult-Year Contracts: We want the administration to remind departments of their obligations per Article X of our contract to offer multi-year contracts to certain faculty.
  • Professional Development Funds: We’ve proposed that the $500 in Professional Development Funds guaranteed by our contract should rollover one time this year. This is due to the fact that many opportunities to use these funds, such as conferences or traveling for research, have been cancelled or made unsafe.
  • Inadvertent Data Breaches: We don’t want faculty who are new to technology like Zoom and other online teaching tools to be punished should they violate data policies therein. Rather, we’re emphasizing that the administration instruct departments to provide resources and make a teaching moment out of any first-time offenses.

Our union works best when we all communicate what our concerns and priorities are. Have something you want us to discuss at the next bargaining session? Contact us.

In Solidarity

NTFC Communications Committee

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Elections Results Spring 2020

The results are in! We are so excited to welcome a record-breaking number of Stewards to the Stewards Council and to welcome Dr. Amy Clay, former LAS steward, to the Executive Council as Communications Chair.

See below for the full list of our new NTFC Leaders!

Executive Council

  • President–Michael Odom
  • Vice President–Amanda Bales
  • Secretary–Shawn Gilmore
  • Treasurer–Stephanie Fortado
  • Grievance Committee Chair–Dennis Dullea
  • Communications Committee Chair–Amy Clay
  • Bargaining Research Committee Chair–Jordan Sellers
  • Chief Steward–Heather McLeer

Stewards Council

  • Liberal Arts and Sciences Stewards
    • Katherine (Kate) Norcross–English
    • Valeria Bonatti–Global Studies
    • Bryan Dunne–Astronomy
    • Anna Nesbitt–Atmospheric Sciences
    • Lisa Travis–Pscyhology
    • Silvia Soto–American Indian Studies
    • Karle Flanagan–Statistics
    • Ellen Fireman–Statistics
    • Daniel (Dan) Steward–Sociology
    • Caroline (Carrie) Bunch–Communication
    • Allison O’Dwyer–School of Integrative Biology
    • Sarka Petrickova–Mathematics
    • Daniel Roche–English
    • Hugh Bishop–Linguistics
    • Charles Fogelman–Global Studies
    • Linda Sims–Linguistics
    • Billy Huff–Communication
    • Jonathan (Patrick) Fadely–English
    • Benjamin Clegg–School of Integrative Biology
    • Andrew Moss–English
    • Jordan Sellers–English
  • Fine & Applied Arts Stewards
    • Rachel Fein-Smolinski–Art & Design
    • Carl Lewis–Architecture
    • Rosemary (Rose) Kaczmarowksi–Theatre
    • Lou Turner–Urban & Regional Planning
    • Ken Salo–Urban & Regional Planning
    • Karin Hodgin Jones–Art & Design
  • Education Stewards
    • Susan (Sue) Talbott–Special Education
    • Kimberly Wolowiec-Fisher–Special Education
  • Engineering Stewards
    • Geoffrey Challen–Computer Science
    • Juan Alvarez–Electrical & Computer Engineering
    • Zuofu Cheng–Electrical & Computer Engineering
  • Information Sciences Stewards
    • David (Dave) Dubin–Information Sciences
  • Business Stewards
    • John Hepp–Accountancy
  • Labor and Employment Relations Stewards
    • Stephanie Fortado–Labor Education Program

COVID-19 Community and Professional Resources

*Last Updated on May 5th, 2020.*

There are now over 1,200,000 confirmed cases of Corona Virus, also known as COVID-19, in the United States. On March 20th Governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, issued a shelter-in-place order effective until at least April 7th. This order has since been extended until May 30th. To avoid contracting or spreading the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that you keep at least six feet of distance from others, stay indoors as much as possible, and frequently disinfect commonly used or shared surfaces such as keyboards, computer mice, toilets, sinks, door handles, light switches, controllers, remotes, chair backs, and staircase railings.

NTFC has compiled some resources, tips, and useful articles to read to help us navigate this transition to online teaching and connect our members to Mutual Aid services in Champaign-Urbana. We’re all in this together, so, if you have concerns or need some tips you’d like to see on our website, please contact us. Please also send us your suggestions for how to improve this resource.

Mutual Aid

Some community members have started a Mutual Aid Resource document listing aid programs in Champaign County. For some of the most recent headlines regarding utilities, legal news, and mutual aid resources, you can also check out this resource guide post from the Public i.

In addition, we encourage our members to check out the American Federation of Teachers’ new COVID-19 resource, Solidarity Academy. They’re hosting free webinars every Friday on topics like applying for unemployment insurance and the effects of the pandemic on adjunct faculty.

Watch the AFT’s latest webinar about unemployment insurance

Or, read this summary of the webinar provided by the union at Elgin Community College.

A screenshot from the AFT’s latest webinar all about Unemployment Insurance.

What Does Our Contract Say About Online Teaching?

While our contract does not have language directly related to online teaching, the same expectations of departments to clearly set and define duties and expectations of work apply. Our contract stipulates that all departments must, for example, be able to tell you what percentage of your job your teaching, research, or service duties are.

In addition, we recognize that many of you might face delays or altered course schedules due to the transition to online teaching. We remind you that, per our contract, you are not required do perform any duties outside your dates of service except for: grade reporting, grade disputes, and unit orientation, training, or meetings, all of which can be done electronically. Your department must notify you if they expect you to perform other duties after the end of the semester. Just because you’ve faced delays in your class schedule doesn’t mean the semester end date has been pushed back! Don’t overwork yourselves–stick to your end date and alter your course plan accordingly.

Online Teaching Tools

Each class is different, and there’s no one-size-fits all approach. There’s plenty of software out there that you’ll want to experiment with to see what’s best for you. A few programs to check out are below, with some that might require subscriptions for full functionality.

  • Zoom–This is a great tool for video conferencing with your students. You can share your screen and video of yourself at the same time, and you have the option to mute participants, upload files to the chat, and record the entire session so that others can view it at a later time. Everyone with a valid NetID should have Zoom access. You can check out this quick guide to get setup with Zoom.
  • Slack–You can use this to organize your class online and easily see information about different threads or “channels”. It’s all free, and includes add-ons for taking polls, integration with Google Calendar, and other features.
  • Discord–Similar to Slack, Discord offers a platform to quickly and easily sort information into different channels. It also includes video and screen sharing support for conferencing with students.
  • When2Meet–This tool lets you quickly and easily schedule meetings. It’s especially useful for trying to schedule large groups of people, as the best times to meet are instantly visualized and updated each time a new person fills out the poll.
  • Kahoot–This is best for creating short quizzes or games for students to play to help them learn information, and many language classes use it to teach vocabulary. Kahoot also comes with a very meme-able soundtrack, free of charge.

Guides, News, and Resources for Online Teaching

What Are Other Schools Doing?

  • Many schools are moving to all pass/fail courses, or extending deadlines by which classes can move to this category. Schools like Harvard University, Middlebury College, Vanderbilt University, Ohio State University, and many others.
  • Most schools have suspended all international travel, closed campus, moved to remote teaching, and closed libraries and other public buildings.
  • Many schools are still deliberating whether or not to hold in-person classes in the fall.
  • Most other NTT’s and NTT unions are negotiating with their school administrations to reach Memorandums of Understanding, or MOU’s. NTFC is currently negotiating such an MOU right now, and will be releasing an update shortly on what is being covered.


NTFC is Seeking a Part-Time Operations Coordinator

Apply by by April 27th by submitting your cover letter and CV through to ntfc6546@gmail.com with the subject line “Operations Coordinator.”

Due to Covid-19 public health and safety concerns, we will be practicing social distancing and conduct this job search remotely through phone and/or video-conferencing. Job duties may also begin as working from home, depending on ongoing social distancing guidelines.

About NTFC

The Non-Tenure Faculty Coalition brings together non-tenure track faculty members at the UIUC for purposes of collective bargaining. First organized as part of the Campus Faculty Association in Spring of 2014, we were recognized as Local #6546 AFT/IFT/AAUP by the Illinois Educational Labor Board in July 2014. Since the summer of 2015 we have been known as the Non-Tenure Faculty Coalition (NTFC), Local #6546. Our local union is affiliated with the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors. For more information, you can explore our website.

Job Description

The Operations Coordinator is a part-time employee that runs the union’s office and supports the work of the Stewards and Executive Councils.

Duties and responsibilities include:

manages membership database and generates reports from the data, answers member inquiries and basic communications for NTFC, handles sensitive information regarding members experiences with the university and often performs intake for grievances, provides strategy and logistical support in organizing, produces support materials for organizing and communications in both print and digital documents, supports the treasurer with dues, reimbursements, and other financial intakes, updates and maintains website and social media accounts, generates website and social media content, plans and coordinates social events and meetings often coordinating with other unions, provides support during training, maintains the office and orders supplies

Requirements:

-Bachelor’s degree

-Demonstrated ability to work with minimal supervision

-Knowledge and support of labor issues

Desired Skills & Experiences:

-3 years previous work experience in similar position

-Strong problem solving skills

-Ability to work independently

-Ability to coordinate and follow-up on the work of volunteers

-A desire and ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic, and flexible work environment

-Ability to manage multiple long-term projects and immediate tasks concurrently

-Basic graphic design abilities

-Proficiency in WordPress, Microsoft Suite, Google products, Canva, Database Management

Hours and Compensation

-Between 15-20 hours a week, occasionally requires up to 25

-Remote work and telecommuting options available

-Starts at $18 an hour, eligible for raise after 3 months

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