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>In negotiating the 10-hour threshold for tuition remission during contract negotiations, the union says it understood that eight-hour appointments would be use
by virtuous_signal 7y ago
>In negotiating the 10-hour threshold for tuition remission during contract negotiations, the union says it understood that eight-hour appointments would be used only sparingly. And they were used that way for about a decade. Since 2015, however, non-remission-eligible appointments have surged from about 2 percent of assistantships to 12 percent.
It appears that it all comes down to whose understanding about the final contract was right. I understand these are legal documents. Was "sparingly" defined there, and did increasing the number of 8-hour appointments exceed that threshold?
Either way it's bad that the trend always seems to be towards decreasing instructional staff pay and benefits. It's a nice windfall for these TAs whether they were expecting it or not.
- GavinMcG 7y ago> it all comes down to whose understanding about the final contract This isn't entirely correct. There are things that are explicitly part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement that both parties put in writing, and there are all sorts of other things that are "past practice". Even if it's not codified in the agreement, a company must bargain with a union when it wants to make a change in working conditions.
- virtuous_signal 7y agoThanks, I hadn't heard of the term past practices before. I guess I haven't experienced being unionized, and just take it for granted that an employer can make my life worse if it wanted to. Sort of boggles my mind that a union can negotiate things with the employer in vague terms, and the understanding is that things will always be "just as good" unless explicitly spelled out.
- kick 7y agoAs the old labor movement song goes, there is power in a union! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Is_Power_in_a_Union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Is_Power_in_a_Union