Professors union signs contract with UC

The University of Cincinnati and its professors' union have reached a collective bargaining agreement, which will be in effect from now until 2019.

The contract was ratified by the members of the UC chapter of the American Association of University Professors Friday. It was approved by UC's board of trustees at a special meeting Sept. 15.

The new terms of the contract, which mainly addressed health benefits and salaries, were described as a positive achievement and a compromise between the union and UC administrators. The union represents the more than 800 full-time faculty members at UC and its two regional campuses.

Vice provost for academic personnel Matt Serra, who led negotiations on behalf of UC, said the main issues boiled down to economics – specifically salaries and benefits.

Individual employee contributions for health insurance will not increase, which was considered a win for the faculty.

UC chapter leaders released a statement Friday stating "health insurance contributions will mainly remain at their current levels," which was identified as "critically important by many faculty members in bargaining surveys and focus groups. Faculty development will also receive much-needed additional funding."

Faculty also fought for salary increases, in an effort to ensure their compensation is on par with peer institutions.

The agreement calls for salary increases of 2 percent in the first year, and an average of 2.5 percent in year 2, and an average of 3 percent in year 3.

In the statement, chapter president Ron Jones and vice president Connie Kendall-Theado said the salary increases were welcome, but not satisfying.

"They do not go far enough to improve the university’s ability to attract and retain faculty, and to be competitive with those institutions that the administration has identified as 'peer' or 'aspirational,' " the statement said. "Work remains to refocus the administration on the University of Cincinnati’s core teaching and research mission. This includes a review of university spending, including those for administrative units and athletics."

Jones is also a law school faculty member.

The contract was up in June and seven months of negotiations were animated by tension between the faculty and the administration over the amount of money that is taken from the core academic mission to fund other activities such as athletics, according to the union.

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