Faculty union blasts board about contracts

Jan. 7, many at state universities won't have valid agreements with the state. University trustees say the unions must then start negotiations from scratch. Union officials say it's a first step to cut all faculty unions.

By ANITA KUMAR, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 5, 2002

Florida's largest faculty union says the state Board of Education is breaking its promise to honor employment contracts beyond January, when the state completes a massive overhaul of its higher education system.

Starting Jan. 7, thousands of faculty members at the state's 11 public universities will no longer have valid collective bargaining agreements with the education board. Instead, boards of trustees at each university will be responsible for union agreements.

Union officials say state education officials, including board chairman Phil Handy, told them contracts could simply be shifted to the boards of trustees.

Trustees now say they need to wait until January and then negotiate from scratch with the United Faculty of Florida, or any other union.

The decision means that about 10,000 professors, librarians, counselors and others may be working in January without contracts for the first time since 1976.

Union officials are concerned that universities would make serious decisions about firings, academic freedom, tenure, course loads and job definitions without due process.

And it's a first step, they say, to eliminating all faculty unions in Florida and forcing employees to work without a contract.

"A lapse in contract is devastating to faculty rights," said Tom Auxter, UFF president.

Handy and Education Secretary Jim Horne did not return calls Friday. Board spokeswoman Pamela Bryant said no one else could comment.

Dick Beard, chairman of the University of South Florida board of trustees, said the union exaggerates the problem to cause residents to doubt the new governance system and vote for a proposed change on the Nov. 5 ballot.

"It's a bunch of hooey," Beard said. "It's all politics. They're yelling about a fire that hasn't happened yet."

The ballot proposal, spearheaded by U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, would create a state board to oversee public universities, separate from K-12, but keep the boards of trustees at each university. The Florida board and boards of trustees are opposed to the change.

The UFF, Florida Education Association and the Community College Faculty Coalition voted to support the amendment.

USF general counsel R.B. Friedlander said the law does not allow the schools to negotiate a contract now, and that they are forced to wait until January. She said that could lead to a lapse in faculty contracts but that universities would continue to be guided by federal and state laws and university rules.

USF plans to send a letter to all faculty members next week assuring them of the school's commitment to protect them.

"It's not in the universities' interests to arbitrarily change anything," Friedlander said.

UFF is asking the Public Employees Relations Commission, an independent organization that settles employee disputes in Tallahassee, to sort out the problem.

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