Bargaining Update: Contract Extended to July 31

Our contract has been extended to July 31. All contract articles in Tentative Agreement (TA) can be found here. Last week, the Bargaining Team sent out Bargaining Update #9, describing the status of negotiations up to that point. In summary, we have been exchanging proposals with packages that include across-the-board raises, healthcare deductibles, FWA, and other financial components. The last proposal from the administration included average raises of around 3% per year and high deductible increases (from $100/$200 up to $500/$1000 for individuals/families). On July 11, WAU sent a counter-proposal, summarized below:

• WAU sent a counter on July 11 that included a proposal for distributing across-the-board increases based on a system with five salary bands. By this method, lower wage earners would see a greater percentage increase in their raises compared to raises for our high wage earners, even though higher wage earners would still receive substantial and higher dollar amounts for their raises.

• Promotional raises for faculty

  • From Assistant to Associate: $6,000 (instead of $5,000)

  • From Associate to Full: $10,000 (instead of $8,500)

• Promotional raises for academic staff 6% to 7% (instead of 5%)

• Bonus of $1,000/year of contract

• Flexible Work Arrangements

• No change in copays, no additional coinsurance, a small increase to deductibles (from $100/$200 to $150/$300 for individual/family)

• Childcare subsidy pool increase to $200k (instead of $160k)