Greiner to discuss UUP contract with SUNY presidents

Greiner noted that the campuses are not asked to participate in collective bargaining "in a significant or meaningful way." In the past, collective bargaining in the system was done, for the most part, in Albany and "the balance of it we worked out more or less collegially on the campuses," he said.

"It just seems to me now we have an issue that has dragged on long enough that it's my intention to get as actively involved in it as I can," and to that end, he said he will attempt within the next two to four weeks to become as "fully informed as I can on the issues."

Members of UUP-the union that represents faculty and professional staff at SUNY campuses-have been working under an expired contract for more than 15 months. Negotiations between the Governor's Office of Employee Relations and UUP have been stalled for months, primarily over the issue of contracting out state jobs. The state wants the ability to contract out UUP jobs to internal or external corporations; UUP maintains that contracting out would make tenure and permanent appointment null and void.

In a bid to get UUP back to the bargaining table, the state stopped payments to the union's Benefit Trust Fund, which provides members with dental, vision and prescription-drug coverage. The state is appealing a court ruling requiring it to resume funding the Benefit Trust Fund.

Greiner told senators that he intended to raise the issue of stalled contract negotiations at a meeting of SUNY presidents later this week in Albany because "it's not clear to me that there is a kind of urgency on this issue in central office."

But before he did that, he wanted to get "some sense from a group of colleagues on this issues."

Greiner got an earful from faculty members when he asked them, "from the perspective of a faculty memberÉ what difference, if any, has it made that we haven't had a contract for going on two years? From a faculty perspective, what difference does it make?

"This is a truly ingenuous question," he added. "I really am curious how it affects an individual faculty member."

Powhatan Wooldridge, associate professor in the School of Nursing, told Greiner that he has been most directly affected by the lack of benefits for dental and eye care. "I currently have a new prescription from my physician that would enable me to see better; I have not had it filled. I have dental work that needs to be done; I haven't had it done," he said. "I also am personally aware of a substantial number of other faculty that have done pretty much the same thing. And considering that the state court ruled that (cutoff of benefits) was illegal, as I understand it, it seems to me that something is very, very wrong."

The lack of a contract is particularly hard on younger faculty, observed Charles Ebert, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Geography. "The net impact is lowering the certainty that we are on courseÉIt's a little disconcerting and they don't have the feeling they are standing on firm ground and they're beginning to look for another ship," he said.

"I'm actually surprised that my colleagues are speaking in such even tones," said Thomas Schroeder, associate professor of learning and instruction. "Because I personally am very concerned about these issues. I think it's (lack of a contract) intolerable; I think it does a great deal of damage to morale and to our ability to recruit (faculty) and have a national standing, which we say we want."

Tenure is an issue that is not understood by the general public, he added. "I think it would be very valuable if the leadership of this university would explain to the public at large that tenure is not a guarantee of a job for life; it's simply assurance of due process."

The lack of a contract is a "strong indicator" that the state has "walked away from its obligation or its commitment to public education," said Victor Doyno, professor of English.

"The great loss," added William George, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, "to you, Bill, and to us, is this collegiality we've enjoyed. Innuendo, whether true or false, whether right or wrong, whether necessary or unnecessary, has deteriorated" that relationship," he said.

Laura Winsky Mattei, assistant professor of political science, said that before coming to UB, she had worked at a private, liberal arts college where she had received an annual salary increase of at least 5 percent. Her salary has remained flat since coming to UB, she said.

She has been asked by individuals being recruited as faculty members by her department why they should come to UB. "I'm faced with a choice," she said. "Either lying to them or telling them the truth and saying 'well, there are a few reasons to come here but certainly we can't guarantee you a solid contract, I can't say I've had a salary increase and I can't really say there's a vision'."

Greiner told senators that while he "would not hazard an informed opinion" of whether it would be appropriate to have a contracting out provision in the UUP contract -he noted that he hasn't seen the specific language that the state has proposed-he thinks it is an important element of the CSEA contract. The issue, however, is much more complex "with regard to a contract that covers a bargaining unit that includes within it the key professional staff of the university and even more so, given there is a distinction between permanent appointment ­ as it's known and available to the professional staff ­ and tenure as we know it that's available to the academic faculty," he said.

"I think tenure is something, as we have known it, that has worked very, very well for American higher education as a matter of public policy in this country and I think we should continue in that mode. It has to do mostly with how to protect academic freedom and that is not something to be treated cynicallyÉ

"At the same time, tenure gets mixed upÉwith issues of job security, which I think are different. How the differences are explained to the world at large is an issue that we have to address," he said.

"In general, Greiner said, "it seems to me we should be very protective of the kinds of security and freedom from interference with regards to the ways in which we teach and the ways we try to help people learn. Tenure is an extraordinarily important protection."

But in the collective bargaining process, there has to be recognition of the realistic needs of the institution and the state for flexibility in the ways in which they do business, he said.

"Contracting out is not a new concept to us," he said, noting that all auxiliary corporations, such as FSA, are contracted out.

"What I'd like to see is to come to an understanding...the state needs to have the potential for outsourcing but we can't have that in a way that undermines academic tenure," he said.