The University of Maine System (UMS) Board of Trustees approved the new collective bargaining agreements with two faculty unions and tenure for several faculty members on March 28 at the University of Maine.
Chancellor Dannel Malloy will execute agreements for the Associated Faculties of the Universities of Maine (AFUM) and the Maine Part-Time Faculty Association (PATFA) once they have been ratified by both unions. Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives and Chief Legal Office James Thelen said they were the last contracts with labor unions that represent System employees pending board approval and eventual ratification.
The new contract with PAFTA offers a 3% annual pay increase for all employees represented in both fiscal years of the contract, additional benefits to comply with Maine’s earned paid leave law, extended insurance benefits for surviving dependents, evaluation changes, and a joint task force to study various issues.
The new AFUM agreement also includes a 3% annual pay increase for all employees the union represents, retroactive to July 1, 2021, new language to comply with Maine’s earned paid leave law, an increase in the dependent tuition waiver benefit to 55% for the current fiscal year and 60% for the following fiscal year, changes in the tiering of dental insurance coverage and new special retirement incentives for some faculty.
“The quality of our universities’ educational offerings and the overall success of this System depends on our innovative, world-class faculty,” said Chancellor Dannel Malloy. “After a year of hard negotiations, planning and disruptions caused by COVID-19, I am thrilled we were able to reach agreements with AFUM and PAFTA on contracts we feel will effectively support our vital educators and the academic missions of our universities.”
Trustees also awarded the rank of tenure to 50 faculty members across the System — 28 at the UMaine, 14 at the University of Southern Maine (USM), three at the University of Maine at Augusta (UMA), three at the University of Maine at Farmington (UMF) and two at the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI). Additionally, the board awarded the rank of tenure to Yonghao Ni, the incoming J. Ober Chair in Chemical Engineering at the UMaine, at the time of hire, effective Aug. 1, 2022.
Ni is a professor of chemical engineering at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) and is director of UNB’s Limerick Pulp and Paper Research Centre.
The board took these actions and others throughout a two-day regular board meeting that began Sunday, March 27. It served as the first in-person session for the board in two years.
In other board action, the trustees approved the 2021 Maine Economic Improvement Fund (MEIF) annual report. The fund, established by the Maine State Legislature in 1997, positions the System as the center of statewide efforts to leverage economic development through targeted investments in university-based research and development. The report provides annual financial data for the fund, an assessment of the achievement of the annual goals and objectives, and a summary of the research and development projects that have been financed.
Original source can be found here
Alerts Sign-up