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FAMCO Filing ULP After Repeated Delays from Administration
The Faculty Association of Monmouth University (FAMCO) today is filing an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) for the administration’s failure to provide necessary and important information for negotiating healthcare premiums for the upcoming final year of our current contract with Monmouth University. The data in question is the following document:
- The FEBP 2024
We need to review this information because we are committed to moving forward toward a settlement. We are concerned about the University’s continued delays in providing this information to fulfill the union’s request as best as the University is able–information that is available or can be made available to the University by Segal. This delay includes our agreement to postpone three bargaining sessions to allow the University additional time to obtain the Horizon claims experience as reviewed by Segal.
The information we have repeatedly requested is essential to bargaining premiums for 2024. FAMCO requested the information above be delivered on or before Wednesday, June 14 (after multiple previous requests) so that we can proceed with informed discussions. We also requested that the University confirm if parts of the information we have been requesting do not exist in any form by Wednesday June 14 so that we know the University can meet its obligation to provide the information requested, including in any preliminary or partial capacity as it pertains to understanding the costs of healthcare to the University.
FAMCO is taking action for fairness by filing an Unfair Labor Practice as Monmouth University fails to provide vital information for negotiating healthcare premiums, hindering progress towards a settlement and raising concerns about transparency and fulfilling obligations. Stay tuned for more!
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The Persistent Gender Pay Gap in Higher Education: The Troubling Reality for Faculty
According to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Annual Report, higher education faculty, after adjusting for inflation, saw a 2.4% drop in their real earnings despite a 4.1% increase in their pay in 2021-22. Shockingly, over the same period, presidents’ salaries rose by 9.6% and chief financial officers’ pay increased by 12.7%. The report also highlights the high level of precarity among teaching staff and the significant salary gap between female and male professors.
FAMCO President Johanna Foster makes a special appearance expressing deep concern over the widening gender salary gaps and the inexcusable persistence of such disparities despite 60 years since the signing of the Equal Pay Act.
Read and share this report to join the discussion on the persistent gender disparities and income inequality in academia!
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230621152458582%5C
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Monmouth University Hires New Lawyer, Still Won’t Deliver Health Benefits Info to Union
The Monmouth administration has delayed providing important and necessary information for negotiating healthcare premiums for the upcoming final year of our contract with Monmouth University. In addition, the University has hired a new lawyer just to negotiate with FAMCO: John C. Romeo, whom Rider University brought in to bully their faculty union, as well. Despite shelling out an unknown amount for Romeo’s services, the university is not moving any faster to provide the information we have requested multiple times since March. The Information in question are the following sets of documents:
- The 2021 and 2022 Horizon claims experience as reviewed by Segal, including the FEBP 2022
- Settlements received by Monmouth from Horizon for 2019-2021
- Summary of the meeting and all 2022 year end reports from Segal and Horizon from the April 12 meeting with Horizon and Segal
We would like you to join us on Zoom Tuesday afternoon to discuss what we can do about this.
We need to review this information because we are committed to moving forward toward a settlement. We are concerned about the University’s continued delays in providing this information to fulfill the union’s request as best as the University is able–information that is available or can be made available to the University by Segal. This delay includes our agreement to postpone two bargaining sessions to allow the University additional time to obtain the Horizon claims experience as reviewed by Segal, which we still have not received. John Romeo was also hired during this time.
The information we have repeatedly requested is essential to bargaining premiums for 2024. FAMCO requested the information above be delivered on or before Friday, May 19 (after multiple previous requests) so that we can proceed with informed discussions. We also requested that the University confirm if parts of the information we have been requesting do not exist in any form by Friday, May 19 so that we know the University can meet its obligation to provide the information requested, including in any preliminary or partial capacity as it pertains to understanding the costs of healthcare to the University.
To discuss what we can do about this delay, we request your attention on Tuesday afternoon on Zoom. Watch your email for an invite to this meeting. We are looking forward to seeing you there! Solidarity forever!
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Important Meeting May 9th on the Future of Healthcare
FAMCO’s Healthcare Bargaining team will resume negotiations with the administration on May 12th, 2023 at 9am. Despite our multiple requests for relevant information, such as Monmouth’s annual budget reports and settlements received from Horizon between 2019 and 2022, we are still waiting for this information. Our primary objective is still to secure fair premiums for our members!
Since our last bargaining session on March 24th, 2023, the administration has hired an external counsel, John C. Romeo, a labor law specialist who recently negotiated with Rider’s union. This decision raises serious concerns, including how much the university is spending on this consultant and what choosing this kind of lawyer says about the administration’s intentions in negotiations. We want to address these questions and more with you. Join us for an important FAMCO meeting on Tuesday, May 9th at 3pm via Zoom.
Let’s stand together and show our strength. Go Union! Go FAMCO!
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Solidarity with Rutgers Unions
After 10 months without contracts, the full-time faculty, post doctoral, graduate students, counselors, and adjunct faculty of Rutgers University are taking action by calling for a strike starting Monday, April 10 at 9am across all of Rutgers University’s campuses.
We, the member of the Faculty Association of Monmouth University (FAMCO), support our colleagues in their union’s historic first strike and what may become the largest public sector strike in New Jersey history.
We are united in our fight to make higher education more equitable, just, and sustainable for the workers that keep the campus operational. Student success is dependent on the overall wellbeing of employees and faculty who service and teach.
We call upon Rutgers University President Holloway to cease his threats and return to negotiate fair and just contract with the union so faculty can return to doing what they do best.
To our Rutgers colleagues, we stand in unwavering solidarity with you. An injury to one is an injury to all!
To those reading this and want to support Rutgers strike, you can donate to their fund at this link: https://rafup.betterworld.org/donate
Or sign-up to join a picket line at one of the Rutgers campuses: https://rutgersaaup.org/we-are-on-strike-to-win-a-fair-contract-and-a-better-rutgers/
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Healthcare Bargaining Resumes
On March 24th, the FAMCO Bargaining team convened with the administration to discuss healthcare in our first meeting since Fall 2022. Our primary objective remains securing lower premiums for faculty–who have been overpaying for healthcare–and we demand transparency and accountability over rising costs, given faculty’s critical role in fulfilling the university’s mission. Ahead of this meeting, FAMCO requested pertinent data, including annual budget reports and settlements received by Monmouth from Horizon between 2019-2022. We are currently analyzing this data with our expert consultant.
FAMCO leadership will keep its members updated on the developments in the bargaining process and organize future debriefing sessions after the meetings. The Union’s strength lies in its members, so we urge you to stay tuned and show your support. Go Union!
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FAMCO Wins AAUP Grant!
Great news: FAMCO has been awarded the 2023 AAUP Mobilization Grant for $20,000!
The funding from the AAUP grant will support our search for a new part-time field organizer who will help us coordinate next year’s contract campaign and our shift from business model unionism to social justice unionism focusing on 1-1 conversations, power analyses, and member education sessions. Take a look at the job posting here: FAMCO Part-Time Organizer.
We hope to have the staff person on board by the end of this semester to kick-off organizing efforts that will be critical to sustain our capacity as we prepare to negotiate the 2024-2027 contract.
We are very grateful to AAUP National for their continued support of our local chapter and look forward to the opportunity to strengthen our already strong union!
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Faculty Win Healthcare Agreement!
We have terrific news to share: FAMCO and the administration have successfully come to an agreement to freeze faculty healthcare premiums again for 2023! We are also pleased to announce that the administration and FAMCO will resume negotiations in the weeks ahead to establish faculty healthcare premiums for 2024.
The FAMCO Executive Team and our Healthcare Bargaining Team want to send our recognition to the membership for your collective effort to protect our contract. Your willingness to take action together and share your concerns with President Leahy and members of the senior administration was instrumental in our ability to reach this extremely favorable outcome!
We are also very happy to say that this resolution marks a continuation of our positive collaboration with the administration, and we appreciate that President Leahy and his team have been receptive to the faculty’s needs and have been willing to work with us to honor our collective labor agreement.
We look forward to the new year moving ahead in this same spirit, and in the meantime, we sending everyone our best best wishes for a happy weekend and Spring 2023 semester!
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Healthcare Negotiations/Grievance Update
By making unilateral changes to 2023 premiums and refusing to uphold their legal obligation to bargain, the Monmouth University administration is violating specific language in the University’s collective labor agreement and failing to uphold their obligations under the National Labor Relations Act. Despite these violations, FAMCO remains committed to working with the administration in good faith to productively and efficiently resolve this dispute internally, as we are invested in a positive labor-management relationship. Our collective labor agreement must be honored, meaning the administration must negotiate the terms of faculty healthcare with the union. FAMCO has proposed two remedies to these violations, and if MU administrators choose to refuse our proposed remedies (below), FAMCO is prepared to use all appropriate avenues available to protect our collective labor agreement.
Where We Stand Now
The administration continues to refuse to negotiate healthcare plans and rates for 2023 and 2024 because they do not like FAMCO’s proposals.
Instead of negotiating healthcare, the administration unilaterally imposed premium changes for faculty for 2023, increasing premiums for many, and unilaterally decided the basis for projected increases in 2024.
In response, FAMCO offered two options to the administration to resolve this dispute and uphold the contract:
- FAMCO proposed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that would a) freeze 2023 faculty healthcare monthly premiums for the EPO plan, b) hold stable the rates for the Direct Access plan in 2023 as listed in the November 2022 open enrollment period, and c) freeze the 2024 premiums at the 2023 rates outlined above.
- FAMCO also filed a grievance against the administration for imposing 2023 rates for faculty that exceed the rates of administrators, and for the refusal to continue bargaining the terms of healthcare for 2023 and 2024 as required by our collective bargaining agreement. FAMCO is seeking the following two remedies in the grievance: a) a freeze of the 2023 premiums at the 2022 level, and b) the faculty and the administration return to the bargaining table to continue negotiating plans and rates for 2024.
FAMCO Grievance Meeting with President Leahy
January 9 (today), FAMCO met with President Leahy for Step 2 of the grievance process. In that meeting, President Leahy consistently indicated he understands FAMCO’s grievance and will think about the remedies we proposed. Also in that meeting, FAMCO repeatedly asserted our interest in resolving the matter productively and efficiently in an effort to maintain positive labor-management relations. FAMCO also asserted the importance of honoring our collective labor agreement which requires the administration to fully negotiate the terms of faculty healthcare with the union.
The University Can Afford FAMCO’s Remedies
For some perspective, the estimated total cost to the University to freeze faculty’s monthly healthcare premiums in 2023 would be less than $45,000.
In all, costs of healthcare to the university have remained relatively modest over the past six years, while the costs to employees increase significantly, meaning that MU administration has essentially made a profit from faculty healthcare premiums for years.
On top of that, there is also no dispute that the University saved over $2,000,000 last year by moving to a self-insured model, and by making changes to our pharmacy benefits program, which was all done after thorough research and dogged insistence by FAMCO and their own industry-expert healthcare consultant.
Those substantial savings mean that faculty should be paying less, not more, for healthcare at Monmouth. The bottom line is, an employer shouldn’t be making a profit on faculty healthcare premiums. The savings should go back to the employees!
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Grievance Against MU Admin Incoming
FAMCO has officially filed a formal grievance against the administration for their refusal to return to the bargaining table to continue negotiating healthcare plans and rates for 2023 and 2024.
President Leahy recently announced his intent to freeze the 2023 monthly premiums for non-union employees in an attempt to divide university workers, but he is still unwilling to accept an agreement with FAMCO that would prevent an increase in 2023 monthly premiums for our faculty and guarantee our right to continue negotiating new rates for 2024. It seems President Leahy wants to take his ball and go home, walking out on making a good deal for faculty’s families.
For some perspective, the estimated total cost to the University to freeze faculty’s monthly healthcare premiums in 2023 would be less than $45,000. President Leahy is holding out on faculty over an amount this small.
With President Leahy’s team refusing to bargain any further on the health benefit needs of our members, FAMCO understands this is a violation of our current contract’s terms, and it also puts us on a path toward filing an unfair labor practice against the University.
We will keep members posted on the status of the grievance process as it unfolds, and our Contract Action Team will be reaching out to members directly for opportunities to get connected in the week ahead on efforts to hold the administration accountable for meeting their legal obligation to bargain with the union.
If you know that you want to be among those who are working to keep healthcare costs from increasing next year (when we know the University can, in fact, afford to keep those costs constant) then we encourage you to reach out to Sanjana Ragudaran directly, or any member of the FAMCO Executive Team, to get involved.
The Faculty Association of Monmouth University
Monmouth University Faculty for Academic Freedom
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