We are proud to announce that we have reached a tentative agreement on the full contract for August 2019 to August 2023.

After more than a dozen bargaining sessions, meeting weekly, we have reached an agreement addressing all the priorities we heard from our members.

Among other things, the agreement guarantees:

• Merit pools for every year of the contract
• Merit pools include a minimum pay increase
• Increases to the pay-floor
• Professional development funds for every single person every year of the contract
• Compression raise for those who have been employed at least 5 years
• Solidifies current promotion structures in the collective bargaining agreement
• A one-time signing bonus to alleviate increases to health insurance in the first year
• Multi-year contracts for the professorial track, and those outside the professorial track retain the 1+1 rolling benefit
• Process for gaining access to the library after retirement
• Improved union rights to data about our unit and presentation time at new faculty orientation
• Departments will have to publicize workloads for full time positions, so it’s clear that extra work requires extra pay

In the coming days, you will have the opportunity to review the full contract language in order to vote on whether you think the union should ratify the contract.

This would not have been possible without your commitment to showing up at bargaining sessions, communicating your priorities to Stewards, and the Call-the-Provost action this week. NTFC is an entirely member-run union, so this win belongs to everyone who committed their time to making it possible.

After sidebar sessions between lead negotiators last week, the 12th session once again began with the University’s Bargaining Team presenting their counter on the final three articles: Article VIII: Wages, Article XVIII: Dues Deduction, and Article XXVII: Duration.

So, we are still discussing Pay + Length of the Contract.

We were disappointed in their initial offer, but positive movement was made during the session. At one point, it actually looked as if we were headed towards a final tentative agreement. In fact, we were so close that both bargaining teams agreed to stay late in order to make this happen.

However, despite all of the movement made from both sides, when their bargaining team called the Provost’s Office, they said the university will not fund a merit salary increase for Specialized Faculty higher than 2%.

Because of a likely 1% increase in health insurance costs, and a definite 2% increase in cost of living, many NTFC members would effectively receive a pay cut without at least a 3% salary increase.  

During the Rauner budget impasse, the Provost’s Office might have been able to claim hardship in order to justify this stance. But, as has been recently reported, the University of Illinois System just received “the biggest increase in operating funds, 4.6 percent, in nearly two decades.”

Why is the university asking its Specialized Faculty to effectively take a pay cut when it has been allocated a budget that President Killeen himself called “a very significant number” ?

If this is a question you’d like answered, come to the next bargaining session.

Next Session:
Friday, June 21st
9:00am – 12:00pm (you can arrive and leave at-will)
Room 1001 of Khan Annex in Huff Hall, 1206 S 4th St in Champaign, IL.

Until then, we will be contacting members to gather feedback. But, if you are reading this and have specific questions about where the numbers currently stand, or about how to get involved in bargaining in any way, you should contact our Lead Negotiator, Kay Emmert ake153[@]hotmail.com. You can also reach out to us through our website.

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