By Kyle Swanson, Daily News Editor
Published July 25, 2010
After months of ongoing negotiations between University officials and the Lecturers’ Employee Organization, a mediator has been brought in to help the two parties move closer to an agreement.
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The two parties met with a state mediator on Jul. 19 at the request of University officials who have made no secret that they are unhappy with the pace of the current negotiations, which began on Jan. 22. LEO’s previous contract expired on May 15.
“The University bargaining team continues to be frustrated by the LEO team’s unwillingness to meet more regularly and for longer periods of time to work toward a contract settlement,” a bargaining update on the University’s human resources website said.
A similar sentiment was also expressed at the University’s Board of Regents meeting in May, where several regents publicly expressed their frustrations with the pace of negotiations during the meeting.
However, LEO President Bonnie Halloran, a lecturer in anthropology, told the Daily in an interview last weekend that LEO notified University administrators that negotiations would slow in the summer before contract negotiations ever began.
“We told the administration back in October that we really should have the contract by the end of April,” Halloran said, explaining that the lecturers’ bargaining team is made up of volunteers who often have other commitments during the summer. “They knew from October that this was going to be a problem for us and they’re expressing a lot of unhappiness but this is exactly what we told them would happen.”
Halloran said it is also difficult for members of the bargaining team to communicate with LEO members during the summer, which can also cause some delays in the process.
“We function as a democratic organization and while we invest our bargaining team with the authority to bargain at the table, they don’t have absolute authority and they need to have feedback from the membership on what’s going on in terms of what’s okay and what’s not,” Halloran continued. “We can’t have our full team there and that’s a problem for us.”
Asked for her response on the University’s action to bring in a mediator, Halloran said LEO bargainers are dedicated to the ongoing negotiations and are hopeful that a mutually acceptable resolution can be reached.
“We knew this was a possibility. It’s a part of the process of negotiating contracts,” Halloran said of the mediator. “It’s something we haven’t done before, but it’s one of the options in the process and we’re fully, 100 percent committed to this process of mediation and we think through the process there’s the possibility of coming to some kind of agreement.”
However, Halloran added that LEO bargainers continue to also be dedicated to the cause of University lecturers.
“At the same time, we’re still committed to our goals for our members,” Halloran said. “We’ll be working through mediation in order to get to the goals that our members expressed through our own internal process.”
In a statement released to the Daily late last week, a representative from the University’s Office of Public Affairs wrote that University officials also remain optimistic that a resolution can be reached through mediation.
“While mediation is a non-binding process, the University is hopeful that a mediator will be able to bring both sides to the table so they may reach a mutually agreeable resolution that allows all parties to direct their attention to preparing for the fall term,” the statement said.
According to a University human resources website, the two parties have reached tentative agreements on seven issues — six the result of the University’s acceptance of LEO's proposal and one the result of LEO’s acceptance of the University’s proposal.
However, according to the website, seven issues remain on the table — including key debates over compensation and benefits.
“In terms of the annual raises, we’re pretty close to each other.
