February 27th, 2020 Negotiation Session
Notes contributed by Negotiating Team member Dr. David Johnston, Natural Sciences
The Oregon Tech and OT-AAUP bargaining teams met on Thursday, February 27 for the first session of their sixth round of negotiations.
The session began with both parties Tentatively Agreeing (TAed) to (and signing off on) the Distribution of Agreement article, which had been discussed at the January 31st session.
The Oregon Tech team then presented counter proposals on the Preamble and Severability articles. The parties TAed the Preamble, but the OT-AAUP team wished to discuss, internally, some of the changes made to the Severability proposal.
The OT-AAUP team then presented three new article proposals; Progressive Discipline, Grievances, and Arbitration. There was an extended discussion around the Progressive Discipline article, particularly in light of the fact that there is, currently, no formal Discipline policy for faculty. A majority of the discussion took place around how to balance the privacy of individual faculty with the interests of the Association knowing when and how many faculty members are being disciplined. Although no formal resolution was reached, both parties acknowledged that it was an important and delicate subject, and agreed to bring some ideas back to the table after caucusing with their teams. Additionally, the OT-AAUP team stressed that, in addition to the right of a faculty member to ask to have an Association representative present during an investigatory meeting, the Association would like to include the right of a bargaining unit member to have an Association representative accompany them to ANY disciplinary meeting.
There was very little discussion about the Grievances and Arbitration proposals, other than some questions about proposed timelines, as they are fairly standard in most CBAs.
The Oregon Tech team stated that they would review the articles and propose counters at a later date.
The parties concluded the session by discussing OT-AAUP’s No Strike/No Lockout counter proposal. The Oregon Tech team expressed some concern about a change of language in the new counter, but the OT-AAUP team explained that the intent behind the change was only to consolidate the language, not to eliminate any of the previous actions. The Oregon Tech team stated they would review the proposal and counter at a later time.
