For Information of OPE-l people in academic institutions, particularly
for those who are unionized: There is a very hot proposed contract
coming down from the leadership of the United University Professions,
representing faculty and professional staff of State University of New
York employees. The proposed contract was agreed to with the State of
New York, under Governor George Pataki, pending the ratification vote
now in process. In the judgment of dissenters (I am one), tenure as it
has been understood is being undermined and very substantially. The Web
site
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka
has relevant material and you are invited to check it out.
I know that this is not our usual concern on OPE-L but thought it
sufficiently important to notify you. Below is one dialogue on one UUP
SUNY campus list.
Paul Zarembka
Grievance Officer for Academics
UUP SUNY at Buffalo
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On Fri, 5 Sep 1997, Joel Rose, Software Development Manager wrote:
> ... One of the selling points
> of the proposed contract has been that it does not target academics. For
> the first time, as far as I am aware, UUP has signed on to a contract
> which creates second-class status for a segment of its members. Not only
> that, but rather than bemoaning the fact that the state wanted to treat
> academics and professionals differently, the UUP leadership has hastened
> to reassure academics that they're not targeted.
Yes, absolutely correct: the language is that any professional even those
with permanent appointment could be contracted out and redeployed with 2-3
years advance notice. It is as simple as that, so "permanent appointment"
loses its meaning for professionals. On the other hand, for academics,
those with permanent appointment (tenure) can be redeployed with "title"
and pay protected, but not the location nor the nature of that titled work
(I as a UB Professor of economics could be offered a Professorship at
the Brooklyn Health Sciences Center doing work as an administrator--or
else have my employment disappears altogether if I refuse or wait beyond
TEN days after receipt of the offer).
What offsets this drastic change in our conditions of work? a few pieces
of silver.
> Adding insult to injury, UUP uses the dues money paid by all of us,
> including professionals, to deliver its pro-ratification propaganda, while
> denying to opponents of ratification any access to the state-wide
> communications media. Even such a simple request as a link from their
> web-site to ours has been denied. As unacceptable as the proposed
> contract is, the lack of fundamental democratic procedures in the
> ratification process is the real outrage.
Absolutely correct also.
Henry Steck reminded some of us after the meeting last night that no one
had brought up the issues of the effects of this contract on part-timers.
In his opinion, there is some marginal improvement there. I believe
this should be on the record as part-timers are a major component of
SUNY, of course. What Henry may miss is that part-timers are also
subject to the effects of contracting out.
Ruth Meyerowitz at a Buffalo Chapter Board meeting said that this
contract should have a label "Warning: this contract may be dangerous
to your employment". She could not be more correct.
Paul Zarembka
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Paul Zarembka, supporting CRITICAL COMMENTARY ON PROPOSED UUP CONTRACT at
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka and using OS/2 Warp.
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Paul Zarembka, supporting CRITICAL COMMENTARY ON PROPOSED UUP CONTRACT at
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka and using OS/2 Warp.
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