Here’s Our Workload Bargaining Proposal
To win a strong collective bargaining agreement, we need strong engagement from our members. As we continue going through the statutory process, we encourage all CFA members to talk with their colleagues and departments about our fight. Sign and share this pledge for our campaign to Fund the Classroom, Not the Boardroom.
Through our proposal to improve the workload article in our CFA contract, we demand an end to overwork and free work in the classroom, library, mental health clinics, and athletic facilities.
Workload is one of the biggest issues faculty face. While faculty work is deeply meaningful, semester after semester of an excessive workload has immense negative impacts on the individual faculty member as well as on teaching and learning overall. As of July, 180 of 564 open CFA grievances are over workload, with increasing course caps being the main concern.
Courses need to have predictable caps on enrollment, research must be compensated, counselors and librarians must have more flexibility in their work schedules, and faculty on temporary contracts should be paid for service work.
We seek to explicitly define course caps so that instructional faculty are treated fairly and in predictable ways when they are assigned courses to teach. We are proposing contract language only allowing caps to be waived on a temporary, case-by-case basis, when the faculty member assigned to a particular course agrees to it.
CFA also demands assurances that no tenure-track faculty who is required to perform research, scholarship, and/or creative activities will have more than 60% of their workload be direct instruction.
We proposed that faculty on temporary contracts be compensated for service work, too. This means they should be paid in bankable weighted teaching units (WTUs) for non-instructional work assignments including service, advising, and governance assignments. Examples of governance assignments include elected or selected positions on campus or statewide academic senates or other committees.
CFA further demands that a counselor faculty member’s direct services not exceed more than 65% of their workload. Direct services include any service with or on behalf of students, such as individual, couples, and group counseling sessions, crisis and triage appointments, and outreach and prevention programming.
Counselors and librarians must have more flexibility in their work schedules as well. We proposed that counselors and librarians may request a particular work schedule, including at least one day of remote or telework per week. These schedules should not be denied without reasonable justification.
Management has rejected every one of our proposals to improve workload despite the obvious problems faculty experience. As mediation continues and we progress through further steps in the statutory bargaining process, we look forward to a successful resolution.
Our workload proposal is part of our core fight package to enhance our CFA contract.
Below are our previous Headlines pieces explaining our bargaining proposals:
If you know of any faculty who are not yet members, encourage them to join us! Also, reach out to your field representative or chapter president for more ways to get involved.
Together, we will keep fighting for rights, respect, and justice in our next contract and beyond.
If you think these workload proposals are worth defending, please sign the pledge card here and forward it to at least three colleagues!
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