UIC, faculty union sign collective bargaining agreements
UIC United Faculty members signed a new contract that includes provisions for salary increases, computer replacement and reimbursement for professional development. Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin/UIC Photo Services
Collective bargaining contracts have been signed between UIC and UIC United Faculty, which represents tenure-system and non-tenure-system faculty in separate bargaining units.
The three-year agreements are effective from Aug. 16, 2012, to Aug. 15, 2015.
The contracts include provisions for salary increases, computer replacement and reimbursement for professional development.
Tenure-system and non-tenure-system faculty will receive at least a 1 percent salary increase for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years. Additional salary increases will follow the guidelines of the annual campus salary program for each year, based on merit with possible individual adjustments based upon market equity.
Another provision provides pay increases to address salary compression (when new employees are hired at salaries similar to more experienced employees, due to changes in job market rates). In 2013-14 and 2014-15, funding of up to 1 percent of the total tenure system salary base may be awarded to individual tenure-track faculty, and up to 1 percent of the total non-tenure-system faculty salary base to non-tenure-system faculty.
The contract for non-tenure-system faculty includes an increase in the minimum salary from $30,000 to $37,500 and provides for the increased availability of multiyear appointments.
The agreements include a computer replacement program, effective this fall, that allows faculty to replace computers more than four years old with new equipment supported by the Academic Computing and Communications Center.
The contracts provide for a one-time, non-recurring reimbursement to individual faculty members of up to $1,500 for expenses related to research or professional development.
Negotiations began in August 2012 and moved to federal mediation in November 2013. The union held a two-day work stoppage Feb. 18 and 19. Tentative agreement on the contracts was reached April 16.
“Throughout the long process of negotiation and ratification of these contracts, the university and its faculty both remained focused on the teaching, research and service missions of the university. These agreements now allow us to move forward together,” said an email May 9 from Chancellor Paula Allen-Meares and Provost Lon Kaufman.
