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Union calendar

Check our calendar for upcoming bargaining sessions, events, actions, and other opportunities to participate in our union.

UAKU BARGAINING PLATFORM

Ensuring that we have a voice in shared governance:

Assuring a meaningful role for faculty and academic staff at all levels of governance – a role the administration is obliged to respect.
Participating in decision-making about benefits, programs, space, and resources.
Enhancing protections for academic freedom and excellence.

Strengthening KU’s ability to recruit and retain outstanding faculty and academic staff

Winning competitive raises that address the rising cost of living.
Providing affordable health insurance, accessible child care, and improved family leave policies.
Assuring job security, and fair retention and promotion processes, for all of us.
Winning more equitable pay and benefits for part-time faculty.

Building an academic community where students, faculty, and staff thrive:

Taking steps to better enable us to focus on our primary academic responsibilities – teaching, research & scholarship, service, and creative/professional engagement.
Prioritizing new faculty and academic staff hires so that we can more adequately and equitably meet our educational goals.
Requiring that our facilities are safe, well-maintained, and appropriately designed to support excellent research and teaching.

bargaining FAQs

What is collective bargaining?

Collective bargaining is the process that brings unionized employees and their employer together to negotiate a mutually agreed upon and legally binding contract, often called a collective bargaining agreement, or CBA. In Kansas law, the specific term for this kind of agreement is a memorandum of agreement.

What will we bargain for?

A volunteer committee of union members has conducted a survey of the broader union membership to determine which issues KU faculty and academic staff are most concerned about, and which improvements they are most eager to win.
Our Negotiating Team and Bargaining Council will use the priorities identified in that survey, and examples of the best contracts from other academic worker unions, to draft contract proposals. These proposals will cover topics such as compensation, leave policies, healthcare benefits, promotion and discipline processes, tenure and job security, grievance procedures, and more.

Who will participate in collective bargaining?

Our Negotiating Team, which was elected by UAKU members shortly after our union election, will sit down at the bargaining table with representatives of the employer. It’s up to KU administration to choose those representatives, but employer teams often include administrators with expertise in HR, finance, and academic leadership.
UAKU members will be encouraged to attend and observe bargaining sessions to support the Negotiating Team, and will have opportunities to participate in various ways throughout the process.

How does bargaining work?

Our elected Negotiating Team and the employer will set bargaining session dates. At these sessions, each side will have opportunities to present proposals and make counter-proposals, trying to reach an agreement. As we reach agreement on specific articles of the proposed contract, they are set aside as “tentative agreements.”
In between bargaining sessions, the Negotiating Team will provide updates on the progress of negotiations and seek input from the membership. If we are failing to make progress towards the kind of contract we deserve, UAKU may call for actions like button up/color days (where members wear a UAKU button or colors), rallies, or a petition.

How long does contract bargaining take?

The negotiation process takes place over many bargaining sessions. A strong union with an engaged membership can typically finish negotiations in 9–12 months, but if KU administration is intransigent or unprepared, it could take longer.

What happens when an agreement is reached?

When the Negotiating Team and the employer have reached an agreement on all points in the proposed contract, this is called a “tentative agreement” (TA). The TA will be sent to all union members for a ratification vote.
If a majority of members vote to ratify, the new contract will go into effect after approval by the Kansas Board of Regents. If members reject the TA, the Negotiating Team and employer will return to the table and try to reach agreement on a new TA that the membership will approve.

What is the difference between a union contract and an employment agreement or employee handbook?

A union contract is a mutually agreed upon and legally binding contract. That means union members and their employer have a say in the content of the contract, and have formal, legal mechanisms for enforcing the contract.
Hire letters are not as comprehensive as a union contract, they are written by the employer with less input from employees, and enforcement can be very difficult and personally costly for employees. Similarly, the faculty handbook or other policies can usually be ignored by the employer when it’s convenient.