Editor’s Note: A version of this letter was sent to the president of UAW 2300 on Aug. 23 by Laurie Johnston, Senior Director of Staff and Labor Relations, Cornell Department of Human Resources, to work towards a successful negotiation of the UAW’s contract.
Dear Christine,
When we met yesterday morning, we asked the United Autoworkers’ Union to confirm its priorities for reaching an agreement. The UAW stated its key priorities were for the University to adopt the UAW’s structure for two rates (job rate and hire rate), eliminate the “quad” rate and to put more money on the table.
The University’s proposal presented to the UAW on Thursday afternoon addressed these priorities, adopting the UAW structure and significantly increasing the University’s wage proposal in the first year. We made this change in structure at the UAW’s insistence, although our Sunday night proposal would have provided more than 800 employees increases on ratification ranging from 9.2 percent to 24 percent. These adjustments to the University’s proposal were in addition to our agreements during our weekend bargaining sessions to address the UAW’s demand for a Cost of Living Adjustment (“COLA”) and a four year agreement.
When we met with you in the afternoon and the UAW provided its counterproposal, you identified additional priorities for an agreement not identified in our morning session. The UAW proposal showed no movement on the wage percentages across the term of the contract. In fact, the proposal added demands that we believed the UAW had withdrawn, modified proposals where we thought we had agreement and included new demands related to the resolution of the strike. Further, the wage chart provided by the UAW was incomplete and was missing a column for the employees in the “quad” rate for the first two years of the contract. While I believe the University made significant steps toward an agreement with the UAW, the parties remain far apart.
While we remain willing and available to schedule additional bargaining sessions, we would like assurances that both parties are ready to work together toward a tentative agreement. As we’ve stated repeatedly since June, we believe that a mediator could be helpful in assisting us in identifying our priorities, keeping us on track and moving us forward. We are open to working with the federal mediator assigned or to a mediator of the UAW’s choice. Both parties must be willing to work together to reach a compromise. We believe our proposal yesterday is a very strong offer, it demonstrates our good faith and reflects the UAW priorities shared at the table. Unfortunately, the UAW’s responding proposal did not move the parties closer to an agreement.
There is no question that the tentative agreements reached by the parties to date are historic and represent a record contract for the UAW at Cornell, e.g., COLA, Health and Personal Leave, floating holidays, greater vacation benefits for employees with less than 5 years of service, and expansion of University-provided clothing and shoe allowances. We want to continue this momentum for the benefit of your members and our employees.
I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.
— Laurie M. Johnston, Sr. Director, Staff and Labor Relations, Division of Human Resources, Cornell University
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