Sounds good to me...

Go For IT! Strikes and Strike Notices get the stalemate going and it will work out, have faith and stick together and Don't cross picket lines (outside Union Sources wil not, Teamsters, AFL-CIO, etc, deliveries wil not make it there!
Stick up for what You feel You deserve and is fair , Look at what the President of the College makes, the fiasco with the
finacial person after a DUI (hope he gets help as it is a disease )but the package deal he was given originally was outrageous , and Look at Cleveland State University's New President and his temporary living quarters and current ones with a giant soaking tub as he is tall ( I thought I read 6 ft 4in ) is it a swimming pool? Its the so-called "peter principal and its mind boggling how often it happens
Eric Mangini ring a bell :)

Broken Arrow

"She said ''significant progress has been made'' in the 28 negotiating sessions already held and that 12 more sessions have been scheduled. ''Much still needs to be done,'' she wrote."

Forty negotiation sessions to settle a contract? Is that normal?

Again, the university's administration is refusing to negotiate in good faith, and, thus, the on-going and rather unproductive negotiations. They have staffed their negotiating team with labor lawyers (although they have added a dean and department chair) at the expense of Ohio taxpayers.

Faculty are very concerned about the loss of academic freedom, post-tenure review (an annual review already exists for tenured faculty), and the possibility of furloughs. All this while the university builds huge stadiums and is, evidently, making a profit . . .

Why not agree to a similar contract that Kent State just made? It seems to be agreeable and working for both sides.

Are all of you crazy??? These people ought to be grateful they have a job at all - not quibbling over stupid things - and I'm sorry - this is nitpicky, whiny complaints. I hate seeing and hearing about strikes- these are usually people who are wildly overpaid with a benefit package most people would kill for. - They're angry because they may have to pay 17% of the FULL INSURANCE package??? Come on - how many of you out there would love for that to be what you pay?? Academic Freedom, Post Tenure review, furloughs - folks, get over it. As educated people, you are behaving like a bunch of spoiled children. Do your job, do your job well, stop whining and get down on your knees to thank God that you have a job.

I wish this article would offer more specifics about the "unilateral and unrealistic positions" mentioned other than the healthcare expenses. Are they not allowed to disclose specifics while in negotiation?

Yes, Janine, there are indeed legal limitations to what can be publicly aired while a negotiation is taking place. It's the law. Thus, many of the "specifics" can't be discussed in a public forum.

Faculty are indeed thankful to have jobs, and we recognize the good life that teaching and doing research provides. We hope that we are also preparing students to have stable and rewarding careers. Most of us spent tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars (as well as a decade of training) to prepare ourselves for these careers. If the University of Akron's treatment of faculty continues to deteriorate, it will be difficult to recruit good faculty. Why would a bright young professor come to a university where job conditions are substandard? He/she will take a position elsewhere, and our hometown students won't get the quality of education they deserve for the amount of tuition they pay.

I am a UA student and proud to say so. In most cases, I am rather anti-union. Today, I don't believe they are needed as much as they were 50 years ago. However, I have to back up the Union and the faculty members on this one. The 15% that the faculty pays for their portion of the insurance is not at all reasonable. It's better than some but not as good as others. I think it's fair and the faculty deserve it.

U of A needs to share the wealth. If they can pay a boozer CFO dude $250,000 they can cough up a little more to pay deserving faculty who put up with alot!

Hey geek your credibility lacks when you pick loaded and inaccurate words to argue you your point.

"All this while the university builds huge stadiums..."

I wasn't aware that UA built more than one stadium. And, for the record UA used non-educational funds to build the stadim. When will people stop pulling the stadium card and the Dr. Case Card?

Don't look now but, your histrionics are showing people!

Give me a break. Thanks for reinforcing the notion that academia is divorced from reality.

Plus, the union goons seem to be out in full force today. How esteemed that professors are no different than garbage men (no offense to garbage men since they actually work a 40-hr week).

geeks,

Please, do you really think there's a shortage of people wanting to leave industry and teach? Maybe an influx of new talent with actual experience would serve UA well.

Broken Arrow,

If you like what the President of the College makes, then step it up, apply yourself and make similar money. You can't duplicate the success of someone else without duplicating the work of someone else. Imagine that.

I have to side with the union100% here. The universities continue to increase tuition year after year,buy hotels,build stadiums,buy city blocks, and pay top management outrageous benefits and pay. Sounds more like Wall Street and corporate america, than it does an institution of higher learning. If they have the capital for all the above mentioned, then the least they can do is take care of the people that actually do the teaching.

Gee. I wonder why the phony liberals in the Ivory Tower are not pushing to buy into "The Public Option".

I didn't know Hixson was the union president. I'm not surprised, though. He was an awesome history professor as well as an excellent student of history himself. Kudos to him and the rest of the UA faculty for standing up for themselves.

Unfortunately, too many of these kids, like majykman775, don't know their history. Unions aren't any less relevant now than they were 50 years ago. The capitalistas have got everyone so brainwashed into thinking that corporate leadership knows what's best for you. Just like they knew how to keep the economy chuggin' along. And stop the job losses. And stop health care premiums from rising. Well, maybe you get the picture.

Uncle Jack,

By and large, unions aren't revelant in terms of membership or impact. The unionization rate in the private sector is 8% and that 8% is powerless to stop global market forces. The gravy train is not sustainable in industries that actually face competition. If you don't believe me, check out the link below and point out a heavily-unionized industry that is thriving. Even "heavily-unionized" is a relative term since you're only talking about 1/4 of the industry workforce (transportation).

That only leaves public sector unions with much sway since no one can come along and exploit their wasteful practices (at least as of now - wait until budgets are trimmed further). The public sector unionization rate is 41%! Why do I think you can draw a correlation between cost of government and that figure?


http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.t03.htm

I'd sell my right arm to have 85% of my health insurance premiums paid, especially with what I spend in tuition at U of A every year.

Todd65 - UA hasn't raised tuition for the past several years so stop the chicken little impersonations that you do on a regular basis on this site. Also, how many universitites that you know of buy hotels. UA bought one and turned it into dorms. Are universities not suppose to have dorms?

@ The_Original_Jason, Unions aren't irrelevant now and they were not irrelevant when they were founded. Unions are what helped create the middle class in this country and brought the standard of living up around the world. Companies that employ union workers make enough profit to pay their workers what they pay. Companies have what they call accountants, and they are not so stupid that they break the company do to a labor force being to expensive. That is why they have things called contracts, the company and union negotiate what the company CAN afford to pay their work force. Thanks to the unfair, so-called free trade agreements, it is getting harder and harder to reach an agreement though. Here's an idea for you, let's outsource YOUR job and the politicians jobs and we will see how competitive you all are.

@Jason12, You just said they bought a hotel, so what are you whinning about? There is also 67 hotel rooms left in the hotel, other than the dorm rooms, so there. And they just raised their tuition last year, so I don't know where you get your information at.

Hey Original_Jason- I suppose you feel that it's ok that executives and your boys on wall street can steal the public blind and that's ok, right?

But it's somehow not right for the people in the unions that actually make the money for the company, to get their fair share, what an idiotic philosophy.

As far as the cost of government, I don't guess companies like Halliburton, that rips off the American tax payers have anything to do with the cost of government, in your limited mind, huh? how about the $600.00 hammers the government buys or all the special interest people getting their government contracts (kick backs).

OUTRAGEOUS!!!!

THEY SHOULD ALL BE FORCED TO TAKE 20% PAYCUTS..THEY'RE OVERPAID ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OUTRAGEOUS!!!!

THEY SHOULD ALL BE FORCED TO TAKE 20% RAISES..THEY'RE UNDERPAID ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The fact is that I have no idea about the pay scale for AAUP members at the U of A. Somehow, I suspect that patriot76 knows no more than I do. If I am wrong, I invite patriot76 to provide some evidence to support his or her conclusion.

@majykman775 said "The 15% that the faculty pays for their portion of the insurance is not at all reasonable."

What do your base this opinion? I would think most people would be excited to only pay 15% of their medical insurance costs.

@Todd65, tuition was frozen for years so how can it be raised "year after year" as you suggest?

@Todd65, the UA did not raise tuition last year. You better check your information.

Todd65,

I don't care about history. We have a lot of things that built America, should we bring those back? What about slavery?

Tell me how all of the companies in the south (and even parts of the north for that matter) are PROFITABLE w/o union labor. If you looked at the data I linked, 92% of private sector employees are non-union. The argument of predictable labor costs is silly. A synonym of "predictable" is "fixed." Fixed also denotes inflexible. Flexibility is crucial in today's business world. Don't believe me? Ask the GM and Chrysler, who had to enter bankruptcy to shed the noose of union contracts.

If my job was outsourced, I'd get another one. I have marketable skills, which is evident by the fact that I didn't have to collude to gain my position and corresponding wages.

Todd65,

Also, my job could be outsourced. My challenge is to deliver benefits that can't be matched elsewhere. Same w/ everybody else. If my job duties become formulaic, then there is value to be gained by having someone in India do what I do.

Todd65,

I support paying market wages. As soon as these professors are paid for what they are worth individually, then I won't utter a word. But when they band together and all act like they have the same value, then I oppose them.

Re: Wall St, when someone makes millions or billions of dollars on a trade, who am I to argue with them getting a bonus? I'm talking about the majority of firms that maintained profitability or regained profitability after the short term. I'm not under a mistaken assumption that Wall St. isn't making money.

Indeed, the stadium was paid for by "non-education" funds. A great deal of fundraising took place to raise this money, however, and the administrative effort/time involved in this was certainly supported by education funds. There will be additional costs for maintenance and custodial help for this facility for many years to come--and these costs must be borne by taxpayers in some way.
If you are genuinely interested in how the University's money is being spent, call any faculty member you know and ask about their department's health. Most likely you will hear of faculty positions lost and programs underfunded. By comparison, a recent Beacon Journal article mentioned the proliferation of administrative vice-presidents. I cannot speak for all faculty, but many of us are primarily concerned about these losses to the University's academic programs. We unionized six years ago because we were not being heard by our administration, and the current negotiation process only reinforces that perception. Not surprisingly, this year our union membership has surged. If you are a student at the University, or have children who are students, it would be worth an hour of your time to talk with a faculty member about the current situation.

SOLIDARITY!

http://ohio.monster.com/

The one who really get the shaft at UA are the staff. With no contractual obigations to them, the adminstration passes them over for raises time and time again. It might just be time for a new union to come to UA's campus.

Let them strike then bust the union. Hire good people and pay them based on accomplishments.

Hey Spitwad!! you should get you a job down there at the university. Your a far right anti-union fanatic, while your at it hire The_original_Jason, he would fit right in also.

Todd65,

No need, I haven't burned out from real world work yet. When/if I do, I'll consider it.

You never disputed any of the figures I gave you or if we should bring back slavery since it helped build America.

Unions are essentially a public sector phenomenon since taxpayers aren't paying attention to the waste.

Another 10-20 years and that 8% will be 4%. My future grandkids won't even know what a union is.

can anyone loan me a crystal ball please?

@geeks said "There will be additional costs for maintenance and custodial help for this facility for many years to come--and these costs must be borne by taxpayers in some way."

What additional costs? We already had a stadium and the studies showed it cost more to maintain and upkeep than building new. I new modern facility is usually designed so it runs more efficiently and cheaper than the facility it replaced.

In addition, your taxpayer funding assumption assumes that no one donates to athletics, that no money is received from sponsorships or appearance fees, and everyone walks through the turnstiles for free.

I'd challenge the critics of the UA faculty to tell me which of the many books published in the last few years of these staff members they have read. There are many WORLD CLASS scholars at UA and they're treated as expendable things.

And if you think tuition freezes means no rate increase, ask anyone to look at their fees bill. The tuition freeze only affected undergrads anyway, not graduate students. I'm taking two classes and it cost over $3000 for a single semester.

When I was there, the classes were taught by barely intelligible TAs. The couselors advised I take (and pay for) classes I didn't need for my major. I could have taught nearly every class in which I languishied.

Psuedo-salary for pseudo-acadamia.

It’s EVERY Human Beings responsibility to slam the door closed on EVERY employer that refuses to sign an agreement (union contract) Agreeing to comply with demands of Natural Law: what Mother Nature, God, or Whatever Power decreed to be the reality of the real world, God, democracy, capitalism, the US Constitution, and free, fair, and affordable commerce.
Demanding every university, corporation, farmer, business, outsourcer sweatshop, and nonprofit, tax-exempt, organization and Church; markets the cost; in the wholesale and retail price of his or her product and service; Of every workers, consumers, and taxpayers living (including pension and health care); enabling parents to love, nurse, nurture, discipline, protect, and provide for every child (job) they conceive; and fund schools, infrastructure, national security, government services, and etc.; with money derived from wages or independent business profit.

UA hasn't raised tuition? Um I've been a UA student for 6 years working on my masters, and it's been raised just about every every. Its going up in the spring as well. I pay nearly $10,000 a year in tuition as a student. The professors are being asked to take a 20% pay cut as well. How many of YOU will take a 20% pay cut at your jobs? Especially a job that see's an increase in profit every year.

http://media.www.buchtelite.com/media/storage/paper1203/news/2009/08/24/News/Ua.To.Raise.Tuition.For.Spring.Semester-3756388.shtml

@ The_Original_Jason again, I respectfully disagree with your analysis. First of all to answer your question about slavery, slavery was very wrong, then and now, that is precisely my point. America was and is still built by the greedy elite class, off the backs of the poor and working people. Talking about wealth redistribution, there sure is, from the working people to the wealthy, that somehow feel they are entitled to all the wealth.


To your point about the union being a public sector phenomenon, WRONG, you need a history lesson, even though you said you don't care about history. The union organizing effort began in the trucking industry (private sector) not (public sector).

I also respectfully disagree with your last paragraph. I believe we will see a strong resurgence of organized labor in the very near future. Reason being people are sick and tired of corporate greed and scandals.

Thank you akronguy33!! I guess The_ogiginal_Jason needs to check his facts, as I recommended earlier, huh. Tuition was just posted on this site a couple of months ago and it is going up. I also have family that attended the university and I personally know that their tuition raised, even if they say it was frozen, they just added it in other areas.

Sorry The_ Original_ Jason, my last paragraph was suppose to be directed at Gain some More Reality, in regards to the tuition issue.

These professors are doctors. They have been in school for 12 years polishing their study before they are even GETTING PAID! Give them the salary they deserve. Sorry if the public has some sort of jealously because these are well educated individuals who refuse to be exploited by the University. Its not like the UofA is hurting for money. Tell the administrators to all take a 20% pay cut before demanding the professors, the ones doing the work, should take a pay cut.

And lets not stop with the professors, what about the thousands of part-time instructors/professors in north east Ohio who are paid less then $10 an hour on average with no benefits? Lets get real, you could make more then that working part-time in retail.

Employers no longer feel they need to follow the laws of economics when paying their employees. They will deviate until it comes back to bite every citizen in this country right in the arse.

Good day.

As a UA faculty member, I would like to point out that the biggest sticking points have less to do with money than with the administration's efforts to run the university as though the faculty were disposable employees who should have little or no input into university governance. Think about this for just a minute: who do you think should decide how to run an academic department? Shouldn't it be the faculty, who know what the current state of research in their field is, and who have the expertise necessary to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses among their existing faculty, and to evaluate the qualifications of prospective new faculty? Or would you really rather the administration just take out ads on monster.com?

The fact that it is taking 40 meetings is the fault of the University hiring attorney Steve Noble of Cleveland. He is only interested in how many hours he can gouge the University for. I have dealt with this low-life at my workplace. The staff could receive a 3% raise just on what the U is paying for this loser.

Well said, Azimuth.

Once upon a time, there was a land called Academia. Academia was a land of honor in which knowledge was passed down through generations. The citizens of Academia had pride in their work and valued their contribution to all of society.

Sadly, a dark cloud of greed overtook this land. Instead of scholarship, the almighty dollar reigned supreme. The rulers of Academia began forcing the citizens to adopt methods and practices which lacked rigor. Instead of standing firm in their beliefs, they caved to the supposed "competition" of neighboring villages.The rulers made Academia nothing more than a diploma mill.

Yes, Azimuth is right. This is about a lot more than salary and benefits.

Original Jason, nobody wants to read your diatribes. They go on and on and on. Do you have a job?

Students go to school to learn. They are taught by faculty. The others are there to support the learning, not the other way around.

Yet, there is a huge gap between faculty and administration salary. Beyond that, the perks that the administration receive are incredible - dinner parties, reserved parking (when the faculty are thrown into the mix of desperate circling under the notion of fairness to our paying customers), and top tier loge seating at the stadium, complete with waiters, fancy food, and alcohol - to name a few.

Most administrators have a bachelors or masters degree compared to a faculty member's doctoral degree. Check out the salary disparity, it's public record. Administrators are their own bosses and can look out for their own good. Faculty are not so fortunate, and, unfortunately, have had to bring in a union

CalmNSense,

Obviously you do since you took what appears to be several minutes to respond. Yes, I have a job..... also one that I obtained based on MY talents, not riding the coattails of a collective groups' talents. Part of that job affords me the time and flexibility to come here and post undeniable, cold, hard data, of which you cannot dispute.

What makes you think you should earn the same, or close the gap with, administration salaries? If you were underpaid, I'd think you'd just go teach KSU, CSU, or one of the Liberal Arts colleges in NEO. It seems pretty easy to me. I guess the answer is that you are paid at the market rate and you CAN'T move elsewhere. That's not the fault of the University, it's your fault for choosing a career where you don't earn a salary that you think you should. Maybe you should leave academia and get a job in industry. Does the 40 hr workweek scare you or is it the accountability? Both?

Oh professors aren't working 40 hours a week? News to me.

AG,

Well then, you must be different from most of the professors I've encountered over the years. How many courses are you teaching this semester? What are your office hours? How many hours per week on research? That's rhetorical, I don't care about the answer.

However, it doesn't matter if you can convince me, it matters how your administration (your bosses) view the situation. They're the ones that matter, not the "jealous" public.

Economics is very much factored into the situation and that's exactly my point. There are plenty of folks looking to either (1) take a part-time gig as an instructor or (2) step out of industry and move FT towards teaching. Hence, the wages that don't meet your expectations. Supply and demand is functioning just fine, it just happens to be to your detriment. If you were worth $x, you'd be paid $x.

Todd. Akron guy, and Jason

Actually, all of you are wrong. The university froze tuition the past few years, and it was just this year that both undergrad and grad tuition costs were raised. Over the past few years, Akron couldn't raise it's tuition if it wanted to. Every public uni in the state was under freeze. Then the second that the state released the freeze, every one of the universities raised their tuition a touch.

One would think that Akron is doing pretty well financially. Bowling Green has seen a decrease in students every year for the past few years. So Akron is doing MUCH better than many other public universities in the state.

Akronguy, just because school costs more for you one year, doesn't mean the per credit hour costs were raised. This seems obvious, but to say tuition was raised every year over the past few years is just...well...a lie.

Todd. Akron guy, and Jason

Actually, all of you are wrong. The university froze tuition the past few years, and it was just this year that both undergrad and grad tuition costs were raised. Over the past few years, Akron couldn't raise it's tuition if it wanted to. Every public uni in the state was under freeze. Then the second that the state released the freeze, every one of the universities raised their tuition a touch.

One would think that Akron is doing pretty well financially. Bowling Green has seen a decrease in students every year for the past few years. So Akron is doing MUCH better than many other public universities in the state.

Akronguy, just because school costs more for you one year, doesn't mean the per credit hour costs were raised. This seems obvious, but to say tuition was raised every year over the past few years is just...well...a lie.

Todd65 made the statement that tuition keeps going up and my point was that it didn't for the past several years. He also uses the plural of the word "hotel" as though universities buy hotelS en mass. I realize that UA was free to raise tuition just this year but prior to that it hadn't for several years and the reason is irrelevant. The point is that every time Todd makes a post he embeleshes out the wazoo.

"A great deal of fundraising took place to raise this money, however, and the administrative effort/time involved in this was certainly supported by education funds."

Nice back peddle and hair splitting geek, but no cigar

akronguy33,

Last night you mentioned that faculty were asked to take a 20% pay cut. Where did you get that info?

I'm all for the Faculty fighting for the better but I don't like the way they are going about doing it.
Why agree to whatever 4 years ago if you are still unhappy right now?
I graduated from UA in 2006. In 2005 the faculty made a classless move picketing outside of graduation. Once in a lifetime moment for students and you chose to do that. In one of my classes a teacher offered students extra credit if we attended a protest on campus at noon.

Bottom Line: The power of organized people must defeat the power of organized money, if human progress is to occur. When working men and women gain, all society gains.

@Todd65, go back and read your very own statement. You said tuition went up "last year". A couple of months ago was NOT last year.

Is this the same Walter Hixson who told me NOT to enroll at U of A because the history program was so pathetic?

I do not acknowledge any of my degrees of Akron U. I simply say 'my certification is from U of A'

The only degree on my resume is from THE Ohio State University.

Funny, my boss told me once he puts the U of A graduates on the BOTTOM OF HIS PIlE when hiring.

Does Hixson still have his communist propoganda hanging in his office?

Many readers may be unaware that in the current round of negotiations, the UA administration has largely refused to carry over agreements from the current contract. Instead, they have forced a "start from scratch" approach to negotiations. This has created an atmosphere not of cooperative bargaining with the best interests of the university in mind, but of hostility toward UA faculty. If the UA faculty feel disenfranchised, perhaps it is because the UA administration's negotiating team appears determined to exclude the faculty from crucial decision-making roles within the university.
As for the suggestion that UA faculty should accept whatever bones the administration condescend to throw them because we should be happy to have jobs at all, this misses several important points.
(1) The UA faculty believe the university will, in fact, be qualitatively better as a result of significant faculty input into how the university is run. For the faculty to placidly accept whatever contract the administration proposes would be to go against this belief.
(2) Why should the faculty settle for a terrible contract because it is better than not having a job at all? Why not try to negotiate for a good contract? And if the administrations negotiating team decides to try to bully the faculty into submission, why should the faculty curl up and accept the beating when it has other options?

Well said, Azimuth.

I am a faculty member, nearing retirement, so that the salary issues in this contract will actually not have much effect on my life. (They will, however, injure my younger colleagues!) However, I remain concerned about the issues of governance/program review/academic freedom that the administration is poised to gut. The University will be weakened by these changes, which are something of an academic embarassment on the national level.

In comparison with salaries at other Ohio state universities, UA is at or near the bottom. Well, except for Proenza and his favorites. Many UA professors dream of only one thing: flight, getting out, leaving, voting with their feet. It is not easy to move, but some succeed. Good luck to the profs if they decide to strike. If local unions refuse to cross their picket lines, the professors can win.

@Mikhailovich, can you show a source proving your statement that UA is at the bottom?

This 2007-08 salary survey shows UA is 7 out of 12. UA has been in middle for many years, and than dropped in 2005-06 to 10th and has climbed the two years following.

http://hr.osu.edu/statistics/ohfacsal08.pdf