After nearly eight months of negotiations, the University of Maine System and its faculty union continue to lock horns over issues of compensation and academic freedom on a new two-year contract.
The Associated Faculties of the Universities of Maine, which has around 1250 members, has tried to maintain faculty positions in exchange for keeping wages and benefits flat, but UMS has said they can’t promise professors won’t lose their jobs, according to union leaders.
Peggy Markson, spokesperson for UMS, said the System office has no definite plans to cut faculty positions.
“We don’t have any number [of faculty cuts] right now. Reducing staffing would only happen if we weren’t able to contain current costs,” she said.
Mediation between UMS and AFUM began in October after six months of failed negotiations. During mediation, a representative from the Maine Labor Relations Board intervenes to reach a compromise.
AFUM’s current contract, which was to expire June 30, was extended this fall to Dec. 31. Jim McClymer, vice-president and head of negotiations for AFUM, said the union may resort to bolder action if a compromise is not reached before the first of the year.
“It unleashes the faculty,” he said of the expiration of the current contract. “We’ve agreed that we will continue discussing and negotiating in good faith and we’ve done nothing but that,” he said. “But as of Jan. 1, we will continue to negotiate in good faith, but we can do other things at that point. Surprise is a nice weapon. I suspect that in January, the System could end up being surprised.
At the last AFUM meeting at USM on Nov.13, some members said the University System didn’t come to the bargaining table willing to negotiate, and claimed the System is using the current economic climate to ask for excessive concessions.
UMS representatives have cited declining state appropriations and flat or declining enrollments in defense of their push to effectively freeze wages. Governor Baldacci issued a curtailment order on Nov. 20 that included a mid-year cut of $6 million for UMS. The order was issued to curb an estimated state deficit of $400 million. The legislature is expected to impose further cuts when they reconvene in January.
“Certainly it’s no secret that the University’s financial condition is stressed and that one of our goals is containing and controlling the costs of compensation and benefits. That area is a high priority for us,” said Tracy Bignam, chief human resources and organizational development officer for UMS.
“The toughest issue is compensation, certainly,” said Ron Mosely, president of AFUM. “The huge problem the University faces is the state appropriation. Certainly that’s had a really negative impact on negotation. Something I’d like to see, and AFUM is interested in, is some kind of protection against layoffs, but I don’t see it happening. The System has said that they just can’t do that.”
But according to an outside audit by New Jersey accountant Leroy Dubeck, UMS may be in better financial shape than they claim.
“UMS has substantial reserves to deal with cuts in its state appropriation,” he wrote in his report “Analysis of the Financial Reports of the University of Maine.” As of June 30, UMS had $206,530,000 in assets and $64,266,000 in liabilities. “Hence current assets were over over three times the amount of current liabilities,” Dubeck wrote. “This means that UMS has large amounts of cash and short term investments available to meet an unexpected reduction in the State appropriation.”
The audit was commissioned by AFUM, which Mosely said the union does every year.
UMS currently holds $84 million in its reserve fund, but UMS Controller Tracy Elliot said that money isn’t meant to cover increases in compensation.
“Pay increases are ongoing, so once you’ve increased pay, that becomes part of the baseline budget. You don’t pay for ongoing costs out of reserves,” she said.
“I think it’s a fairly sound principle in general: you don’t use reserves to pay operating expenses, or else you use up your reserves,” said Mosely. “They’re supposed to be used for sort of a rainy day sort of situation. And my response is that this is a rainy day. Most people would agree we’re in a bad economic time. This to me is the time to be able to justify dipping into reserves for certain legitimate purposes: to maintain programs and the ability to offer those programs.”
Eileen Eagan, professor of history and head of bargaining for AFUM at USM, agreed. “They could use [reserves] for other things and that could free up money that could be used for faculty salaries,” she said.
AFUM officials are also concerned with the percentage of the budget UMS spends on instruction. According to Elliot, 27.7 percent of total expenditures are set aside for instruction, which includes all costs associated with teaching students. According to minutes taken at AFUM’s Nov. 13 meeting, “it was agreed by all that these numbers are shockingly low.”
“When I looked at some other schools it did seem a lot higher at some other systems than what we had, enough that it really does require someone to look at it more carefully to see if it’s justified or not,” said McClymer.
UMS and AFUM are also at odds over a proposed amendment to the contract that enforces faculty rights to “academic freedom.” Under this provision, UMS could not fire a professor for speaking out publicly against the University.
“There’s been a Supreme Court ruling that limits the ability of employees to speak out when they’re acting on behalf of their employer,” McClymer said. “And while the Supreme Court was really quick to say ‘we havent decided if this applies to faculty at higher education institutions,’ some lower court rulings seem to be implying that it does. This could have quite a chilling effect. And while the University insists they would never do such a thing, court rulings may indicate they could.”
Bignam said the System office isn’t looking for major concessions in the new contract, but declined to comment on specific proposals. She said it is normal for negotiations to take this long.
“We’re not looking for large change in most areas,” she said.
“It’s not unusual for [mediation] to be sort of slow-moving. We were at a point where it seemed where we were not making a lot of progress [and we] decided to take a break of a couple of weeks, but we are planning to resume mediation again. I think all parties including the mediator decided it was fruitful for us to continue that process, at least a little bit more.”