Loyola University Updates

Monday, March 10 –

Dear Colleagues, 

Here is your recap of our third union bargaining session for our third union contract. We are making progress in our negotiations thanks in large part to every member who has attended a bargaining meeting!

Around 35 of our members were able to attend some or all of this fully online session, and their input was crucial. When members attend a bargaining session, they are able to see and hear firsthand what is being said from both sides of the negotiating table. Unionized faculty can then weigh in on issues in which they have knowledge and experience in real time. Our union contract can better serve the diverse needs of all of our faculty when members from various departments, disciplines and positions all share their perspectives in the process of researching, writing and negotiating it. Thank you to everyone who has attended a session and contributed to our contract thus far!

We were especially thrilled to see a good number of our part-time faculty members in attendance at our last session. Many of them informed us that the online format made their attendance possible. We are committed to making our union accessible to and for everyone. Thus, if holding future bargaining sessions on Zoom and/or having audio, visual and/or other accommodations at our in-person meetings would support you in attending and participating in our contract negotiations, please reply to this email and let us know. The bargaining team can then amplify our members’ needs to LUC administration and better advocate for equitable access for us all. 

The bargaining session was frustrating because management, instead of constructively engaging with and responding to many of our proposals, either rejected them outright or responded in a way that completely defanged them.

It was management’s opinion that many of our proposals are solely in response to politics and the current governmental administration in the U.S.  in Washington. We think differently. But we do see our union contract as a way to fight back against unjust societal change inside and outside of our university. We understand the pressure the university administration is under and the care it is taking to secure Loyola’s social justice mission heritage through teaching. The union and unionized faculty want to support our university in this. Our proposals seek to strengthen existing laws that serve our social justice mission by memorializing and enforcing them. Though city, state, and national laws may change, the vested rights we establish in our contract rules stay in place until someone takes the time and energy to change them. We can all work together to protect and support faculty, staff, students and our community as a whole.

In other cases, management acknowledged that our proposals spoke to serious problems–but then insisted that our union contract was not the place to address them. Instead, they essentially asked us to trust them to address these issues on their own, without the accountability a union contract creates.

Session #3 began with management offering three counter proposals to speak to the five proposals we presented in our last session. They accepted our language on initiating grievance at Step 3 in cases involving dismissal. We are close to a tentative agreement (TA) on Grievance and Procedure.

Management rejected our proposal on Academic Freedom. Their rationale was the desire to keep a single university standard on Academic Freedom. We expressed our concern that the current CBA language refers to the Faculty Handbook (Article 5) which states that Academic Freedom is protected by tenure. That’s just not good enough when more than half the faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences are non-tenure track faculty. Management agreed that the Faculty handbook language is skewed to tenured faculty and worth revision. 

Management rejected our Accessibility proposal. Here again, they do not want separate rules for unionized and non-unionized faculty and also feel the university already has appropriate policies in place. Instead, they proposed adding something to Non-Discrimination on following the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), rejecting our advocacy of incorporating best practices in accessibility that have developed since the passage of the ADA in 1990. 

Management rejected our Immigration proposal outright and presented us with a new proposal, Proposal 25.11, Termination of Employment for Failure to Comply with Immigration Laws. For international faculty on H1B visas in CAS, the university currently sponsors full-time faculty only. Temporary and part-time faculty H1B visas are not sponsored. Members can email HR or CAS to find university policy around immigration.

Our next bargaining session will be Tuesday, March 18, 9am-1pm in the Simpson Hall Multi-Purpose Room, at 6333 N Winthrop Ave, Chicago, IL 60660. 

Please plan to attend a bargaining session, even if you can only make it for a bit. You do not need to be present the entire time. We understand that our members are busy, and expect everyone to come in and out as their schedule permits. You are welcome to be active in the bargaining process but can also simply observe. The more we show up during this process, the more productive the process will be!

Please see Loyola Faculty Forward Updates for union resources, member testimonials in support of bargaining goals (which we encourage you to contribute to), and more. 

In solidarity,

The Loyola Chicago Faculty Forward Bargaining Committee

Monday, March 4 –
Dear Colleagues,

We met for our second bargaining session this past Friday. About 20 members attended part or all of the session. It was wonderful to see so many different departments represented! Below you will find the recap. Please feel free to reach out to your department’s steward if you have questions or comments.

Our next bargaining session will be held on Zoom this Friday, March 7, from 9am-1pm. To attend, please register at this link. 

We have proposed having hybrid in-person-Zoom bargaining meetings to better accommodate members, such as part-time faculty working at multiple schools, allowing more members to participate. Management has rejected this idea. They have agreed to do this session by Zoom since it falls over Spring Break. If you can’t make the in-person meetings, we encourage you to attend at least part of this session.

Friday’s session began with management responding to the proposals we presented at the first bargaining session: Orientation, Management Rights, and new position Titles. 

The administration rejected our proposed language changes to allow a union representative to attend orientation events for new faculty. They feel they already meet their obligation to inform new faculty about union membership by providing updated member lists and the use of University facilities to the union. 

The administration also rejected proposed changes to Management Rights. It is management’s view that adding the new language, ”..provided these rights are not exercised in an arbitrary and capricious manner….” fundamentally changes management rights, even though this language is commonplace in union contracts. The Faculty Forward team proposed this language to give faculty more agency and support. Management would like to hear specific examples of how this language would better serve union members. If you have an example of arbitrary and capricious management to share, please share them by responding to this email.

Management welcomed our proposal for new titles. There is a current Titles and Promotion Committee working on titles and our management wants to see what that committee decides before agreeing to the language we proposed. The committee is composed of various stake holders including chairs, deans, and a representative from Faculty Council. 

We then proposed updates to the Grievance and Arbitration and Non-Discrimination clauses, and we introduced three new articles: Immigration, Accessibility, and Academic Freedom.

Our proposed language on the grievance procedure would modify the process for certain kinds of grievances. A grievance is a claim by members that the employer has violated, misinterpreted, or misapplied the collective bargaining agreement, a past practice, or law.

Under our proposed changes, cases involving termination of employment or two or more members (a group or all-affected grievance)  would expedite the process of holding management accountable by beginning the case at Step 3.

We then introduced an article on immigration seeking to clarify communication and timelines for faculty with visa sponsorship. Management listened and said they will take it into consideration and will see if they feel it is actually in the university’s best interest. They claim that they have never sponsored visas for part-time faculty and feel it is incumbent upon members to understand their own status and issues around their visa. If you are a part-time or full-time member who has had their visa sponsored by the University, let us know by responding to this email. 

Our proposal on accessibility builds on the  ADA (American with Disabilities Act) to help make Loyola a workplace where faculty with disabilities have access to resources and accommodations that make it possible to do their job. There have been evolving best practices around the ADA since it was first implemented in 1990 and we want those best practices used by Loyola, ensuring that all members of our community have access to participate in the life of the institution and community.

Our goal for the changes proposed to the Non-Discrimination clause is to make sure union members are insulated from political pendulum swings. It is our feeling that having this language in our contract would give union members, and the administration, extra legal protection.

The last proposal that we introduced was a new Academic Freedom clause. This new clause addresses the need for extra protection for both our members and the University to continue honoring our shared mission. The administration has concerns about tension between Academic Freedom and the university’s rights to determine curriculum. 

Our next session will be held on Zoom Friday, March 7, from 9am-1pm. We hope to hear counter proposals from the administration on what we proposed on Friday. 

Thank you so much for reading! Please plan to attend a bargaining session, even if you can only make it for a bit. You do not need to be present the entire time–we expect members to come in and out as their teaching schedule permits. You are welcome to be active in the bargaining process but can also simply observe. The more we show up during this process the more the administration will see how strong we are!

Please see Loyola Faculty Forward Updates for union resources, member testimonials in support of bargaining goals, a list of union stewards, and more.

In solidarity,

The Loyola Chicago Faculty Forward Bargaining Committee

---

---

Friday, February 21-

Dear Colleagues,

The negotiations for Faculty Forward LUC’s third contractual bargaining agreement have begun! Our first bargaining session began with union leadership presenting our vision statement for these negotiations, along with the results of our member survey (which we will share soon). LUC administration shared that it was helpful for them to see our perspective from these presentations. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to them!

Please note: all proposals presented at this first session were presented by our union, Faculty Forward LUC. Contract negotiations generally begin with non-economic issues. We chose to begin our negotiations with proposals we hoped LUC administrators would be amiable to so as to efficiently move forward in our bargaining process. We will build up to our economic proposals, but that in no way means that our non-economic proposals aren’t just as important to get right along the way! We must work together to best craft every aspect of our next CBA to serve everyone in our union, but we can’t do that without the involvement of all of our members. We encourage you to come join us whenever you can at any and all of our bargaining meetings, and/or to contribute your voice to our online organizing efforts however you see fit. All contributions are welcome and appreciated! 

The first proposal we presented in our negotiation session on Tuesday, February 18th was an orientation clause about how to introduce new faculty to our union for section 4.3 of our CBA, Union Rights. In an effort to make sure that new members are aware of their responsibility to stay within good standing, our proposal asked to have a union steward present at new faculty orientation events. Management agreed that this was an important issue that has “fallen through the cracks,” but they disagreed with new faculty orientation being the place for the union to meet and inform its newest members about our union and their rights within it. 

Next, we took up Article XXVII, Management Rights and Responsibilities. We sought to add “provided these rights are not exercised in an arbitrary and capricious manner” to this clause. Management stated they preferred these issues be handled more informally in Labor Management meetings, rather than formally addressed in writing.

The third and last proposal of the day involved faculty classifications being changed and clarified in our contract under article XVIII, Faculty Classifications. With this proposal, we are seeking to establish a professional system of titles for both FT NTT and PT NTT faculty. We feel these new titles clearly value all of our members and their contributions as faculty. Said titles would set a common standard of reference across similar academic institutions as they are in keeping with those used at University of Chicago and Northwestern. Administration welcomed this proposal. 

We went on to ask that our negotiations be held in hybrid form for maximum member accessibility and participation. Management is against this idea, and is asking for all sessions to remain in-person only except for the March 7, fully-online session.

Our next bargaining session is Friday, February 28, 9am-1pm in the Simpson Hall Multi-Purpose Room, 6333 N Winthrop Ave, Chicago, IL 60660. We will present more proposals at that meeting and are looking forward to seeing what management will propose then as well.

All members are encouraged to come to any and all of our union contract bargaining meetings, even if they cannot attend the full session. We appreciate our members’ time, and welcome everyone to come in and out as their teaching schedule and other responsibilities permit. All full-paying Faculty Forward LUC union members may actively participate in the bargaining process, but can also simply observe. The more we show up during this process, the more the administration will see how united we are as a union. Member unity and representation build our power to win the pay we have earned and the work/life balance we deserve. We have heard from you via our survey and our member meetings just what you want to see changed in our third union contract. Now is the time for us all to show up so make those changes together.

Please see Loyola Faculty Forward Updates for union resources, member testimonials in support of bargaining goals, a list of union stewards, and more.

If you are not yet a full member of our union, now is the time to join. You can sign a member card here. Since the union is faculty using power in numbers to win improvements, more members means more leverage with Loyola at the bargaining table. We look forward to seeing you at bargaining.

In solidarity,

The Loyola Chicago Faculty Forward Bargaining Committee