Direct Link to the Report HERE.

Text of the cover letter:

September 12, 2016

To BCF-UAW members and the Barnard community,

One year ago, the eligible contingent faculty at Barnard voted overwhelmingly to form a union. This vote reflected a broad awareness that Barnard’s treatment of part-time and full-time contingent faculty, who perform most of the teaching, was exploitive. The new union—Barnard Contingent Faculty-UAW Local 2110 (BCF-UAW)—had a clear mandate to challenge the inequities built into Barnard’s bewildering profusion of faculty titles.

Since February the BCF-UAW Bargaining Committee has met thirteen times with the administration to negotiate a first contract that would guarantee raises, job security, benefits, a grievance procedure, and a host of other needed protections. Attached is a comprehensive report on the status of the negotiations to date. We ask all members of BCF-UAW to read the report and encourage others at Barnard to do the same.

The tenor of bargaining has been dictated by the administration’s spokesperson, a partner in the law firm of Jackson Lewis PC, notorious nationally for its anti-union consulting practice. The rest of the administration team has little experience with negotiating union contracts. The pace of negotiations has been glacial, and it is clear from both the administration team’s demeanor and positions that they do not value us as educators and colleagues.

While we will continue to bargain hard, we must also escalate pressure on the administration. Over the next few weeks, we will be reaching out to all contingent faculty to discuss crucial next steps. We remain ready to negotiate a reasonable compromise; however, the administration must make substantial changes in its position at the bargaining table. If they continue to refuse, then our union, at all levels, will use every available resource to win a fair contract, including action by the membership.

In solidarity,

Siobhan Burke, Dance, Bargaining Committee
Ted Feng, Assistant Director, UAW Region 9A
Georgette Fleischer, English, Bargaining Committee
Maida Rosenstein, President, UAW Local 2110
R. Todd Rouhe, Architecture, Bargaining Committee
Sonam Singh, English, Bargaining Committee

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