The University of Vermont and the union representing 163 part-time faculty members has reached an agreement on new contract.
The deal reached with United Academics calls for a 8.75 percent salary increase over the three-year contract and faculty members who teach nine or more credits a semester per year will be eligible to receive university-paid health care, according to a news release.
Under the agreement, part-time faculty would receive a 3.25 percent pay increase in fiscal year 2016; a 3 percent increase in 2017; and a 2.5 percent increase in 2018.
Since February, the bargaining team of United Academics has been working with UVM to agree on the terms of its next collective bargaining agreement. This tentative agreement will soon be submitted to the members of the Part-Time Bargaining Unit for a ratification vote.
Samantha Montgomery, higher education field representative at the Vermont chapter of the American Teacher’s Federation, said that the bargaining team has been gearing up for contract negotiations since the last settlement.
The agreement would allow lecturers who have taught 24 credit hours as members of the part-time bargaining unit to become eligible for full-year contracts, according to an Aug. 20 press release. They will also become eligible for union representation after their second semester of teaching at UVM, according to the press release.
“Long term contracts and job security are huge gains for our members,” Montgomery said.
Another part of the agreement is increased respect for part-time faculty by allowing them to receive notice of and minutes from faculty meetings in their respective departments, according to the press release.
If the part-time faculty votes to ratify this agreement, it will form the basis for a new collective bargaining agreement between the union and its faculty employees, according to the press release.
“We’re really proud of all of the work that our members did to accomplish this,” Montgomery said.
Part-time faculty are expected to vote on the agreement in mid-September, Montgomery said. If ratified, the agreement will retroactively go into effect for the beginning of the 2015 fall semester, she said.
“We believe that the new contract will provide a good balance between our strategic goals of investing in academic quality and value, and keeping UVM affordable and accessible for students, consistent with our strategic action plan,” said Wanda Healing-Grant, UVM vice president for Human Resources, Diversity and Multicultural Affairs.