Even though we are close to an agreement, several important matters remain unresolved in bargaining. We have scheduled three sessions in July in hopes to come to a tentative agreement on the whole contract that we can send to the membership to vote on for ratification.

July 5 2-5 pm.

July 9 10am-5pm.

July 10 12-5pm.

All sessions will be at Westminster House, and depending on how the conversation goes we may not be there for the whole time or even all three times.

In our last bargaining session (July 15) we did come to an agreement on Parking. 40 faculty/staff spaces will be available to graduate employees up from the current 20. We also discussed non-economic issues such as adding academic freedom language, defining adequate work space more fully, and establishing some reasonable limits on when we can be compelled to work. OSU’s team seemed generally skeptical on many of these proposals, suggesting that implementation would conflict with OSU policy or that existing language already provided protections for our concerns. We also discussed the 12 graduate credit enrollment requirement and specific ways to work around this problem in departments where this requirement creates an undue burden on employees.

In the two week break we have had, both sides agreed to work on some proposal language so the conversation can move forward. On Thursday, CGE is bringing concrete language regarding workspace, work time limitations, and academic freedom. We are hoping OSU will bring a final policy for the Letter of Agreement on Fees and the differential payment, some definition of what will be included in a Family-Medical leave policy, and some clarification of the implementation of new insurance coverage.

If you are around this summer, please feel welcome to come by to observe these bargaining sessions. Also, if you have comments or concerns, feel free to post to this page or email vp_bargaining@cge6069.org.