Salary Information

Where Are Our Raises?

Since September 2003, our United Faculty of Florida representatives have regularly met with the administration to negotiate a union contract covering a host of issues: from intellectual property to tenure, from academic freedom to sabbaticals, from grievance procedures to pay raises. The negotiations have been difficult, and we remain far from an agreement. Here are a few of the reasons we have yet to come to resolution on salaries:

The administration came late to the table.

Administrators did not present the union with a comprehensive proposal on salaries until July 23, 2004 - ten months after the start of negotiations. Management's team brought forward a full salary proposal only after a hearing officer from the Public Employees Relations Commission ruled that they must negotiate, rather than simply dictate, how we will be compensated.

Their proposal contains nothing for 2003-2004.

When the administration did at last produce a full proposal on salaries, it included no raises for the 2003-2004 academic year. Administrators scoff at the union's position that any salary package should be retroactive to the start of negotiations. But for the vast majority of us - who received nothing beyond a meager legislatively-mandated increase (1.5% or less for 9-month appointees) to offset inflated healthcare costs - management's refusal to bargain over pay for the '03-'04 year effectively cuts the administration's '04-'05 offer in half.

Money has been lavished upon top-level administrators.

President Hitt received a $15,000 raise in 2003-2004, on top of the $93,000 raise he received the previous year. Across campus, administrators received raises averaging more than 9% for '02-'03. Such raises aren't necessarily exorbitant; given that UCF's annual budget increased by more than 16%, there should be plenty to go around. But senior administrators have rewarded only themselves - offering more than thirteen hundred of us nothing.

Together, we can change the priorities at this institution. Together, we can win a fair agreement that justly rewards our efforts and talents. Together, we can achieve reasonable raises for '03-'04 and subsequent years - raises that include provisions for merit, market equity, and the cost of living.

We need your help in the fight for fair raises for all UCF faculty. Come to an upcoming union event. Attend a negotiations session. Talk to a non-member colleague about the importance of joining United Faculty of Florida. If you are not yourself yet a member of UFF, join now. Speak to your local UFF representative or write to us at organizing@uffucf.org to find out more about how you can do your part in our efforts to secure a fair contract.