Academy for Academic Personnel Administration

Fall 2003

Round Table Report

 

1.  Institution Information

 

Name of Institution/System:                   University of Alaska System

Name of Individual Responding:            James Johnsen

Title of Individual Responding:   Vice President of Faculty and Staff Relations

 

2a. Description of Faculty Bargaining Unit(s) – Size and Composition

 

Alaska Community Colleges Federation of Teachers (ACCFT), AFT Local 2404, AFL-CIO

305 bargaining unit members

First CBA: 1974

Seven subsequent CBAs; currently negotiating the eighth contract

 

2b. Description of Faculty Bargaining Unit(s) – Size and Composition

 

United Academics AAUP/AFT (UNAC)

812 bargaining unit members

First CBA: March 1998

One subsequent CBAs; currently negotiating the third contract

 

2c. Description of Faculty Bargaining Unit(s) – Size and Composition

 

United Academic – Adjuncts AAUP/AFT  (UNAD)

996 bargaining unit members

First CBA: October 28, 1998

Two subsequent contracts

 

3. Activity Report (e.g., status of current agreement or negotiations, details of last contract settlement, etc.):

 

The University has been engaged in negotiations with ACCFT since September 2002, meeting for approximately 50 full day sessions without reaching agreement.  The parties have received the assistance of a mediator on two occasions; the University in August gave the union its last best offer.  Faculty in the bargaining unit were informed of the last best offer in a direct communication from the administration.  More bargaining is scheduled and the parties hope to mediate again in September.

 

In Fall 2003 the University will begin negotiation with union representing blue collar employees (Local 6070) and UNAC on behalf of university faculty.

 

4. Special or noteworthy happenings (e.g., relevant arbitration or court decisions, organizing campaigns, labor agency decisions, etc.)

 

In 2003, the Supreme Court of Alaska overturned a superior court judge’s decision to uphold an arbitrator’s decision in favor of ACCFT in 1998.  In that case, the union had alleged that the university had discriminated against women by paying salaries lower than those for comparable male faculty and that the university had violated the non-discrimination clause of the CBA by failing to include union members in a salary equity study conducted on faculty not then unionized.  The arbitrator found that the union failed to establish its claim of gender discrimination and that the university had acted “in a fair and equitable manner,” in addressing pay inequity.  Nevertheless, the arbitrator found that the university’s action constituted discrimination on the basis of union activity under the CBA.  In overturning the arbitrator’s decision and the lower court’s ruling, the Supreme court found that the arbitrator erred in finding a violation of the nondiscrimination clause of the CBA, because the only “discriminatory” action was that of drawing distinctions between represented and non-represented faculty; no anti-union bias had been shown.  As a result of this decision, the monetary award contained in the arbitrator’s decision (a 2.6% increase that had never been bargained or appropriated by the legislature) was nullified.  The opinion may be viewed at:  http://www.state.ak.us/courts/ops/sp-5667.pdf

 

In 2003, an organizing effort by the Alaska Public Employees Association/AFT for 2,500 staff was withdrawn for lack of support. This was their third unsuccessful campaign in 6 years.

 

The university recently conducted opinion surveys of faculty and staff.  Both are on the web at http://www.alaska.edu/hr/whatsnew/index.xml.

 

5.  Special happenings related to fiscal issues (e.g., salary reductions, health and dental insurance costs, reductions in force, early retirement programs, program consolidation or elimination, etc.):

 

Health benefits costs are escalating at the rate of 15 percent annually.  In response, the university is developing a new flexible health benefits plan, increasing our defined contribution by 25 percent to over $7,000 per employee per year, and increasing employee charges by 50 percent to over  $1,700 per year.  In addition, our state mandated contributions to retirement are increasing by 4-5 percent of payroll in fiscal year 2005 and 2006.  Finally, we expect the cost of our salary settlements with faculty and staff to be in the 4-5% range over the next couple years, largely in response to our salaries lagging the market.

 

Increases in tuition revenue, resulting from enrollment increases of 9 percent and tuition rate increases of 10 percent, together with a doubling of federal research contracts and grants, have enabled the university to reduce its reliance on state government from 60 percent of revenues down to 40 percent.  So far, the university system has been immune from cuts, but we expect significant reallocation in coming years as state funds are no longer able to cover fixed cost increases.