09-04-2006 NEGOTIATIONS LOG by Mike Homel, Chief Negotiator
Tonight's session went from about 5 p.m. to after midnight. We gave
President Fallon and BOR Chair Valvo a response to yesterday's threat
to walk away from talks. We told them their team delayed or denied
giving us needed data and cancelled one session and was unwilling to
add others last month. Because of that, talks are not as far along as
they should be. We restated our willingness to bargain and said that
if their team breaks off talks, it's the administration who's on strike
against the university.
They gave us an economics package, moving from 2% to 2.25% in year one,
but staying at 2% for each of the next four years. They did concede
gradual bump-ups in TIAA-CREF contributions reaching 11% by the end of
a five-year contract. On health care proposal, they want to phase out
both Care Choices and Traditional Blue Cross. And they want everyone
on PPO-
2, Blue Cross, and Care Choices to pay a premium starting at $1174 and
rising to $1719 yearly. Their no-premium PPO-1 has high out of pocket
costs. We replied with a rather different offer on health care that
saves them money
but preserves our basic principles.
Meanwhile, they still ignore our bid to make sabbaticals more avaiable
and to hike the pay for full-year leaves. They still have nothing on
phased retirement. And they will not accept any language on the number
of faculty; if we continued to push that issue, said Jim Greene,
negotiations would fail.
The slow pace at this late stage sure is frustrating, especially as the
start of classes gets closer.