![\"UnionColor\"](\"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernjournal\/files\/2016\/02\/UnionColor-e1454639975221.jpg\")
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By: Alvin Wilson \r\nStaff Writer<\/pre>\nÀÖ²¥ÊÓƵ Federation of Teachers (WOUFT) was offered a chance to finally get what they\u2019ve been asking for: a 10 percent pay increase for non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty over the biennium.<\/p>\n
But after examining President Rex Fuller\u2019s letter to staff and students, Dr. Mark Perlman, philosophy professor and President of WOUFT, was left unsatisfied.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis letter makes it sound like he\u2019s being Santa Claus with big fat raises and I think it\u2019s awfully dishonest for him to make it seem like that,\u201d said Perlman. \u201cBut what he didn\u2019t put in the letter that he sent to everybody, including all of the students, was what they cut to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fuller\u2019s letter included information about the national averages for raises among university staff. According to Inside Higher Ed\u2019s website, average annual raises nationwide in 2014-15 ranged from 1.0 to 2.4 percent.<\/p>\n
In comparison, WOU\u2019s proposed salary increases range from seven to 15 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course seven to 15 percent looks like a lot, and if we were already at the average salary we would be happy to get the average raise nationwide,\u201d said Perlman. \u201cBut we\u2019re so far below the average that even if we agree to this package we\u2019ll still be significantly behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
In earlier negotiations both parties agreed that the cost of raising NTT staff salaries by 10 percent would be $210,000. It was recently discovered, however, that the actual cost would be $126,000.<\/p>\n
How the university was able to reduce the cost by 40 percent is still unknown to WOUFT, according to Perlman.
\nTo pay for the $126,000, the university\u2019s proposal would reduce summer term pay for instructors and reduce course reassignments, which give professors a small break to do research.<\/p>\n\u201cIf you have a research project, you can apply for one of these course reassignments and get one course off on your teaching load to do that research,\u201d Perlman said. \u201c10 years ago we fought to get those things in the contract, and [Fuller] wants to eliminate them \u2014 or at least the ones that cost money.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposal would have reduced the summer term pay for professors from 20 percent of their normal salary to 19 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we were getting, per credit, the same amount we get for the normal academic year, it should be 25 percent,\u201d Perlman said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s already only 20 percent and he wants to cut it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another reason WOUFT didn\u2019t accept the proposal is that they didn\u2019t have enough time to meet and discuss it. The offer came with a deadline, which Perlman said wasn\u2019t long enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been bargaining since \u201898, and nobody\u2019s ever given us expiration dates,\u201d said Perlman. \u201cThey say on Wednesday, \u2018We want our answer on Monday.\u2019 Well, we didn\u2019t have time to have the team meet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perlman believes that the university can pay for the $126,000 if they account for sabbatical, retirement, and healthcare cost reductions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go on sabbatical you get paid less than your normal pay,\u201d Perlman said. \u201cPersonally, I\u2019m on sabbatical for the next three springs, and I get paid 60 percent of my normal pay. They\u2019re saving over $5,000 on me this spring, and over $5,000 on me next year. So that $210,000 didn\u2019t include the fact that for me, personally, they\u2019re saving $10,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s also the issue of what they call Other Personnel Expenses, or OPE, which is things like taxes and healthcare payments,\u201d continued Perlman.<\/p>\n
According to Perlman, the most expensive health plan is PEBB Statewide, Kaiser Permanente is less expensive, and there are even cheaper options than that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I pick the cheap plan, then [the university] will save money,\u201d Perlman said. \u201cSo, we said, \u2018How many people are picking the least expensive plan, and how much money are you saving?\u2019 They won\u2019t say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perlman said that with retirements, sabbaticals, and healthcare savings, among various other savings, there should be enough to cover the cost of raising NTT staff salaries by 10 percent. They already found an extra $84,000 in the budget and Perlman thinks there\u2019s more.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur numbers guys have done the calculations on this, and we think that there\u2019s a lot more than they\u2019re saying,\u201d Perlman explained. \u201cWe think, if they do the math a little more robustly, they will find that there\u2019s way more than the $84,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before WOUFT agrees to any proposals, Perlman said they want to know exactly how much the university will save when retirements, sabbaticals, and healthcare savings are accounted for.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey promised us that information and haven\u2019t given it to us,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery day that they stall, the faculty [is] more angry that we\u2019re not finished.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ÀÖ²¥ÊÓƵ Federation of Teachers (WOUFT) was offered a chance to finally get what they\u2019ve been asking for: a 10 percent pay increase for non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty over the biennium. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":825,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/825"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}