A dispute over the interpretation of a provision of the UMPSA contract has gone from simmer to boil, as the Association filed a grievance over the matter recently.

The dispute revolves around the issue of severance, or "economic benefits" for soft money employees. Negotiators for both sides agreed to use retroactive salary money to fund a pool, which would provide money to soft money employees when their positions are discontinued.

The problem arose when the amount of the fund was established. The University believes the fund should include retroactive salary from only E and G funded employees, a total of $45,000. The Association maintains that the fund should include retroactive salary from E and G and soft money employees, which would bring the fund up to $65,000.

University officials have stated that, due to the nature of their funding, soft money employees cannot contribute to the pool. The Association's response has been that UMPSA negotiates for all professional unit employees, regardless of funding, and that the University's position is a violation of the contract’s recognition clause which identifies the Association as the representative for all employees in the bargaining unit.

The Association is also grieving Article 10, the soft money article, alleging that the pool should include retroactive pay from all unit employees.

Bruce Littlefield (UM), UMPSA’s Chief Negotiator notes that he believed, as did the entire UMPSA team, that the agreement at the table included participation of soft money employees. "No one from the University ever said that soft money employees could not contribute retroactive pay to the pool," he said. He added that his entire team of negotiators is in agreement that no University negotiator said that soft money employees would be excluded from the pool.

"We’re going to follow this grievance through to its conclusion," Littlefield said, "whatever that conclusion is." He added that the Association has provided the University with several options for settlement, all of which have been rejected by David Lane, the Manager of Labor Relations for the University of Maine System and the University'ss Chief Negotiator.

In attempting to settle this matter, UMPSA has suggested that the University use indirect cost funds received from grants to cover overhead, or take the money from the reserves. Both of these suggestions were dismissed by the University as "inappropriate."

UMPSA’s Chief Negotiator noted that the "dollars in question are miniscule" when compared to the $350 million annual budget of the System. He added that the matter would be resolved if the University would provide the "equivalent dollars to make up the retroactivity amount which would have been contributed by soft money employees, about $20,000. It’s hard to believe they can’t find that in a $350 million budget."

At this point, the grievance is pending at the Chancellor’s level of the grievance process. If it is denied there, it will move to binding arbitration, where a third party will hear the case and make a decision that must be honored by both sides.

Michael Morin, UMPSA’s President, has signed the disputed agreement for the Association. The Agreement was signed on March 11, and delivered to the University.

Morin signed the Agreement based upon a vote from the Association’s Executive Board and on the advice of Shawn Keenan. MEA’s General Counsel, even though there is disagreement between the University and the Association regarding the soft money severance provision. That disagreement is now the subject of a grievance.

"It was a hard thing for me to have to do," Morin said. "I did it because I believe it is in the best interest of the members to have a contract in place. Without a contract, we don’t have a forum to dispute the University’s interpretation of the Agreement."

Morin noted that none of the members of UMPSA’s Negotiating Team would sign the Agreement. Rolf Tallberg, MEA’s UniServ Director for UMPSA did not sign the Agreement either.

The Counsel for the MEA, Shawn Keenan, advised the Executive Board that without a signed Agreement, there is no access to binding arbitration, according to current law. He told the Board that failing to execute (sign) the Agreement would put all of its provisions at risk, including salaries, just cause for discipline, health insurance benefits, layoff and recall and all others.

Keenan told the Board that "it makes for more sense, legally and practically, to dispute the University with a contract in place than without one." He acknowledged that while signing a disputed agreement "goes against the grain," the legal protection of the other contractual provisions make it necessary.

While there are mixed feelings about this matter on the Executive Board and within the membership, Morin noted that his greatest concern is "the rights and benefits the contract offers our members and members of the bargaining unit."

Unit members who enrolled in the Delta Dental program have noticed that there have been no deductions to date to cover that insurance. The delay in the deduction of premium was caused by several factors, the implementation of a new HR system by the University and agreement between the University and MEA over liability insurance protecting both from lawsuits which may result from the plan.

A Memorandum of Understanding was drafted and signed by both the University and the Association to provide both organizations with liability protection as a result of implementing the plan. Language changed in that Memorandum was approved on March 24, which, according to the University was too late to get the payroll deductions into the March paychecks.

As a result of the delay, the premium rates will have to be adjusted in order to cover the full first year of the plan. Twelve months of premiums will have to be deducted over nine months. This will result in the following deductions:

Single -- $37.56

Two-person -- $64.79

Family -- $108.20

The cost of the program will remain the same, and on January 1, 1999, the rates will revert back to the original amounts.

"The plan has been in effect, and will remain in effect," according to UniServ Director Rolf Tallberg. "The adjustment in premiums results from having to deduct 12 months worth of premiums over a nine month period."

At this time, UMPSA has about 150 bargaining unit members enrolled in the Delta Dental program, which took effect on January 1, 1998. Even though no deductions have been made, those enrolled are cleared to visit providers and the waiting periods for some services will be retroactive to January 1, 1998.

Despite the dispute over the soft money provision of the Agreement, soft money employees whose positions are discontinued are eligible for "economic assistance" benefits, according to the terms of the contract.

The benefits are based upon the years of continuous service at the University and range from $2,000 to $6,000. These benefits are paid to employees upon discontinuance from soft money positions. Payments are paid in a lump sum.

Bruce Littlefield, UMPSA’s Chief Negotiator, explained that some kind of severance benefit for soft money employees was a priority in negotiations. He noted that the University was "unwilling to put up any money at all to deal with this issue. We felt that if the University wouldn’t, the Association should."

According to Rolf Tallberg, MEA UniServ Director, there are already three soft money employees who are eligible to receive benefits from this pool. He said that the eligible employees would receive a total of about $8,000 from the pool.

Mike Morin, the Manager of Technical Services for the University of Maine’s Campus Living Department has replaced Lynda Kinley as UMPSA President.

Mike took over for Lynda in January of 1998, when Lynda, an Associate Director of Admissions at UMF, took a sabbatical to teach in Russia during the Spring semester.

Mike has taken over during a difficult time, due to a serious contract dispute with the University over soft money severance benefits. He called his first major decision, to execute (sign) the disputed contract agreement "gut-wrenching, but something that had to be done to protect the membership."

Morin will serve as UMPSA’s President until the Association elects new officers, some time in May. Morin said that he will seek election to the post at that time.

The list will put you in contact with other interested unit members, UMPSA’s Executive Board, Negotiators and the MEA. Unit members can discuss contract information, information about health and dental insurance, and can get questions answered quickly and easily.

*15 – The number of employees who have joined UMPSA since September of 1997.

*23 – The number of unit members who have received salary increases beyond the collective bargaining increases since September 1, 1997.

*7 – The number of active grievances now pending between UMPSA and the University.

*147 – The number of UMPSA unit members hired since August of 1997.

*232 – The number of dues-paying UMPSA members as of February 15, 1998.

*1011 – The number of professional employees represented by UMPSA as of February 15, 1998.

Here is a brief review of the issues facing UMPSA members by campus.

UM – UMPSA is awaiting an arbitration decision regarding a grievance relating to harassment/discrimination.

UMA – A grievance is pending regarding salary equity. Salary comparisons with similar positions at other campuses reveal large disparities.

UMFK – Job descriptions and non-unit employees doing unit work are the focus of some disputes at this campus.

UMM – Again, salary equity is the target of a grievance. Similar positions show large disparities.

UMPI – Threats against UMPSA unit employees by other employees have caused some problems.

UNet – Positions are being altered and rewritten without employee input as required by the Agreement.

USM – UMPSA has prevailed in a salary equity grievance at this campus resulting in a substantial salary increase and retroactivity. Soft money positions have been redesigned to remove incumbents and allow for re-filling, despite the Association’s position that they are substantially similar in nature.

The Salary Study Project, which began over a year ago, is nearing completion. This project implemented the "Fixed Cost" portion of the salary called for by Article 17 section D.1 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The project included hardware upgrades, software training, questionnaire production, distribution and retrieval, data entry, and market survey updates. This was done despite a conspicuous lack of support by the consultants, Watson-Wyatt Worldwide. The intent of the project was to collect new job data, thoroughly test the software and evaluation procedures, and analyze data and generate reports to be used in negotiations between the University and UMPSA over implementation of the salary system. A report by the Joint Oversight Committee is due out in April.

Preliminary analysis of the results of the project points up one major difficulty standing in the way of implementation. The job market has changed over the years, while the evaluation model developed for the University and built into the software by Wyatt in 1991 has not. Some jobs are more marketable now than they were in 1991, but others have declined in market value. The result is that the Wycomp software as it currently exists does a poor job of predicting the current market value of the positions.

Numerical techniques for generating an updated model with better market correlation (such as multiple linear regression and artificial neural networks) are now being explored. (The neural network model has shown real promise.) The source code for the Wycomp software is being purchased to allow the University to incorporate any updated model into the software and to maintain the Wycomp program in-house. If a new model can be developed, verified, and incorporated into the software, we may still be able to sit down with the University to bargain implementation later this year.

UMPSA’s Executive Board has agreed to ballot all members in elections for the coming year. The decision was made as a result of low attendance at the April 25 Delegate Assembly.

Ballots and voting instructions will be sent to all members, according to Mike Morin, the current UMPSA President. Information on the candidates will be included with the ballot.

Morin said that the state-wide election would provide input from members who would not normally have the chance to vote. He also said that it was a way to stay in touch with the membership.

Ballots are scheduled to be mailed the second or third week in May.

Unification – You may have heard or read about the possible "unification" of the NEA and AFT. There is information available about this in the latest version of the Educator. There will be a vote to determine whether or not to merge the two organizations at the NEA Representative Assembly in early July. The merged organization would not be either NEA or AFT, but a yet unnamed organization affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

MEA Representative Assembly – The MEA R. A. will be held this year on May 30-31 in Portland. This is the governing body of the Association, made up of elected delegates from all affiliated locals, including UMPSA, which is eligible for three seats. This is an important year, since MEA officers will be elected. You will hear from the candidates at the UMPSA D.A.. UMPSA can still send delegates to the R.A. and have them seated from the floor. They would then be "official" delegates with voting rights.

Service – MEA and UMPSA have agreed to test an alternative service arrangement to see if service to this Association can be improved. The arrangement will have a UniServ Director from the South Portland MEA office available to handle contract questions, Step 1 grievances, membership, local training, etc. for the USM campus. This will help me by having someone local to do things that do not require specific knowledge of the contract, or the University. Rather than me driving two to four hours for a Step 1 grievance, a UniServ Director who is local would handle those. MEA will pilot this arrangement for a number of months and monitor the results. If it is deemed successful, it will be expanded to other areas of the state.