AAUP executives are grateful for their growing support for their ideas and support during these contract negotiations, as well as for their concerns about the specifics of the new CBA. Without our concerted efforts through collective bargaining to maintain and improve the remuneration and protection of the faculty, our conditions of employment would have deteriorated considerably. In the area of stage, it is essential that steering committee members, Department representatives and various faculty members remain involved in the implementation of the provisions of the new KBA. Leave is available for all eligible employees. Leave is accrued by salary period and can be used as soon as it is accumulated. Leave is carried forward from year to year. The maximum allowable leave balance is what can happen over a two-year period. The limits of the tariff unit are explained in the collective agreement. More information can be found in the staff manual or in your unit contract. The administration should commit to real and sustainable financial transparency and, if it exists, provide strong evidence that the only feasible cost-cutting measures left to them must be taken in terms of personnel.
That is a reasonable request for us before we say we are ready to return to the negotiating table, because the only reason we are being asked to come back to the table is concessions. This financial information should be made available to the AAUP-UD as well as the Senate Budget Committee of the Faculty, which has the codified reproach of „being fully informed of the financial and planning issues of this university“ and of reviewing the budgets of universities. In the meantime, we are against all staff measures – including Furloughs, layoffs, non-renewals and reductions in salaries and benefits – against university faculties or staff. If, as President Assanis put it, the University of Delaware is a „family,“ then our family members should be treated as more valuable than their property. On September 18, 2020, just a few months after the contract was renegotiated, the administration asked us to return to the negotiating table, saying that the decision to reverse the course to open the campus had left the university with much larger-than-expected shortfalls. Given that we have recently concluded a round of negotiations – an expensive and tedious undertaking – and because the administration`s past and current budgetary secrecy gives us little concrete data on the actual state of the university`s finances, we have submitted a request to the administration for detailed financial information to determine whether a return to the table is warranted. On October 2, the administration completely rejected our request for information and indicated that it would only be able to disclose the requested information if we formally resume collective bargaining. They replied: „e will be happy to discuss these issues in negotiations, but not as a precondition.“ Since there is no obligation to provide us with detailed information, we would have little reason to believe that they would respond to our request if we accepted the resumption of negotiations. In addition, he stated in his letter that school officials are in discussions with unions representing certain workers, „how to manage treaty increases that fall under collective agreements.“ The 5% pay cut does not apply to workers subject to collective agreements or students (graduates and students), postdoctoral fellows and people with H-1B visas.