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Dear LMU NTT Union Family:
We — the Bargaining Action Team (BAT) for your Non-Tenure Track (NTT) Faculty Union — held the 12th Bargaining Session for our union contract on July 29. We’ll be frank: This was a contentious bargaining session, and it’s becoming increasingly clear to us that LMU’s administration is more interested in using hardball, anti-union, and even unlawful tactics to win concessions than it is in reaching a fair contract with us.
Given this, we must come together to chart a path forward. We’ll discuss the latest in bargaining and building a plan to win a strong contract at our General Membership Meeting TOMORROW, Tuesday, Aug. 5, at NOON. We can’t win without your participation. Use this link to join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2211202419?omn=83336892199
For now, here are highlights from the bargaining session:
LMU’s admin says it will continue holding merit-pay increases and promotions hostage.
During our bargaining session, LMU’s admin said it plans to continue violating labor law by 1) refusing to provide its normal annual merit-pay increases to full-time union members and 2) withholding promotions for the entire unit, despite many of us qualifying for advancement.
These moves are unlawful because they discriminate against us as union members and unilaterally change the terms of our working conditions as we bargain for our first contract. Non-union NTT faculty are not affected by these policy changes, so it’s obvious we’re being singled out. As we’ve written elsewhere, the BAT authorized filing Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges over these matters with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). NLRB agents are now investigating the charges and gathering the evidence.
It’s clear to us that the administration believes that holding advancement opportunities and merit increases hostage until we reach a contract gives them leverage at the bargaining table. They want to pressure us into accepting less. This is unnecessary, unjust, and unfair. It demonstrates tremendous disrespect for the hard-working faculty members who make this campus what it is, and it’s not what we expect from our university, which claims to uphold values of social justice and equity.
LMU’s admin continues dragging its feet in bargaining.
Despite the admin telling us they want to make progress on our contract, they have been slow to schedule bargaining sessions this summer and haven’t provided us with counters on pay, benefits, and other economic matters. During our session, they said we shouldn’t expect any economic proposals in August. This is unacceptable. We’ve been bargaining for seven months. LMU’s admin must stop dragging its feet!
In lieu of economic proposals, the university made an HR-style presentation at our bargaining session citing concerns about student enrollment and LMU’s financial future without providing much detail. It’s typical for employers in these negotiations to say they can’t provide a living wage because of uncertainty or lack of funding. We must push back against this. LMU is one of the largest private universities in California. It can afford a living wage for its employees.
We moved closer on two articles.
In some positive news, we moved closer to agreement with the admin on 1) a fair process for performance evaluations and 2) a system for NTT faculty in our unit to bring grievances against the university for violating our union contract and settling them through arbitration. We’ll have more details on that soon.
Conclusion
The Bargaining Team believes our faculty unit must be ready to act if our administration continues to egregiously violate labor law and slow-walk bargaining.
Again, please join our next General Membership Meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 5, at NOON where we’lldiscuss the latest in bargaining and how we build a plan to win a strong contract. We need as many faculty members involved as possible. Use this link to join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2211202419?omn=83336892199
In Solidarity
You Bargaining Team