Posted on 11/30/2010 9:47:58 AM PST by Jim Noble
DURHAM – Direct contract talks between the University of New Hampshire and its professors have broken down amid disputes about salary and benefits, both sides announced Monday.
The two sides said they had reached an impasse and would meet with a mediator today to begin the next phase of negotiations toward a new, three-year contract. The current one-year contract was approved in June and expired at the end of that same month after taking effect retroactively. A new contract would likely be retroactive, too.
UNH and the labor union representing about 630 professors cannot agree on raises or health insurance premiums, as has been the case in previous negotiations. The university is proposing a 6.5 percent pay raise, more than half of which would be merit-based, along with a 2 percentage point increase in how much professors pay for their health insurance and additional cash payments to offset any premium hikes.
UNH officials argued that professors there earn more than counterparts at similar schools and pay less for health insurance than university staff members, who are not tenure-track faculty and not in the union. "The university is committed to an approach to total compensation that continues to attract and retain talented faculty and staff by keeping pace with the marketplace as its resources allow," UNH Chief Negotiator Candace Corvey said in a statement.
Professors proposed a 12.5 percent pay increase, one percent of which would be merit-based, and no increase in health insurance premiums. Dale Barkey, the union's chief negotiator, said UNH's proposal falls short of market rates and is below the amount a fact finder recommended earlier this summer.
A fact finder, a neutral third party who examines offers from both sides and proposes solutions if a mediator fails, recommended two different contracts this summer. The first was a one-year contract with a 2.5 percent raise; the second was a two-year contract with a 2.5 percent raise in the first year and an additional 3.7 percent raise in the second year. UNH approved the one-year contract, which expired at the end of June, but rejected the second. Barkey noted that this time around, the first year of the union's proposed contract includes only a 3.5 percent raise. UNH has had a tight budget in recent years and offered buyouts to many staff and faculty members to cut its payroll. Corvey said that, coupled with the shaky economy, led the school to propose smaller raises. "With inflation tracking at less than 0.5 percent, faculty salaries currently more than two points on average above our comparators, and an overall economic climate that remains weak and uncertain, the university believes 6.5 percent over the next three years and the proposed benefits changes will result in fair and competitive compensation for its faculty," Corvey said.
During the previous round of negotiations, UNH offered a one-year contract with a 1.5 percent pay raise.
\ What's stopping them from leaving and going to these better paying jobs? The UNH administrators should stop pointing guns to the professors heads.
I didn’t know that professors were union. I thought they were professionals.
Esp. since most of them sit in their office writing a book while the student instructor actually teaches.
Relatively few faculty have collective bargaining. Most faculty labor cartels have little power.
The demands of this labor cartel are ridiculous, just laughable. Faculty labor markets for most disciplines are very tight. For business faculty, labor markets used to be very good. Faculty with good qualifications could move with ease usually at increased salaries. Those days have faded however starting with the dot com bust. In my discipline (information systems), the labor market is absolutely terrible now.
Universities should reduce faculty compensation, not increase it. Faculty have been able to bid up their compensation in the good times. Now the reverse should occur. If a faculty cannot demonstrate labor market demand, compensation should be reduced. It is an odd situation for never ending tuition increases funding high faculty salaries (as well as high salaries of other university personnel).
Hope you don't mind Vinnie; just expounding based on personal experience.
Forgot to mention that the professor then REQUIRES their own book as part of the reading material for the class. So there is a captive market/audience.
No problemo (that’s Spanish, I think)
Right-on, bro. I think it’s particularly absurd that faculty want to equate their compensation with executive salaries in the private sector—given how anti-capitalist, anti-American society and traditions, even anti-free speech the cirricula are becoming. They are also the most intense advocates of the new Great Society organized through the Community Service movements on campuses, in partnership with Liberal groups and government.
Well, but you can’t blame the professors totally for that. Professors cannot achieve tenure and status at their university on the basis of teaching alone - they have to publish. That book may gain him or her tenure. Teaching won’t.
Well, but you can’t blame the professors totally for that. Professors cannot achieve tenure and status at their university on the basis of teaching alone - they have to publish. That book may gain him or her tenure. Teaching won’t.
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