Response to Recent AAUP Claims
March 10, 2010
To: The UNH Community
From: Candace Corvey
Chief Negotiator, UNH Negotiating Team
Re: American Association of University Professors (AAUP)
Message of March 8, 2010
Date: March 10, 2010
The leadership of the AAUP recently issued a statement that attempts to refute parts of my March 3, 2010, memo to the community. I am compelled to respond and do so on behalf of the UNH Negotiating Team and the UNH administration:
- President Huddleston remains closely engaged in the effort to bring this negotiation to a fair conclusion. He has offered to co-host with the AAUP a series of open forums regarding the negotiations upon receipt of the report of the independent and mutually chosen fact-finder. The invitation remains open.
- A salary increase effective on January 1 would cost half of one that is effective on July 1 in FY10. Beginning in FY11, the annual impact of the salary differential between the two parties’ current proposals would double to $1.45 million. The university is unequivocally required to pay 46 cents on every salary dollar to finance the cost of fringe benefits. Therefore, I reaffirm that, beginning in FY11, the annual difference in cost between the two parties’ current proposals is $2.2 million.
- The AAUP leadership has known since receiving our written proposal of November 13, 2009, that the university’s salary increase offer is contingent on reaching agreement by June 30, 2010. Otherwise, there would be no salary increase in FY10.
- Regarding state funding, the FY08 to FY09 increase of 5 percent (later rescinded by the state) occurred in a year when the faculty salary increase was 5.75 percent. The increase in state funding in FY10, the year covered by the contract under negotiation, is 0 percent.
- It remains a priority of the university to offer fair and competitive compensation. As of FY09, UNH faculty salaries were slightly above the mean for our mutually chosen comparator group. Since the last faculty salary increase, 1) the cost of living in our region has declined by 1.7 percent, 2) salaries among our comparators, including merit and equity components, are increasing by 2.5 percent on average, and 3) the FY10 salary increases in the three comparator contracts negotiated since the economic meltdown in the fall of 2008 are 0 percent, 0 percent, and 1.5 percent. In contrast, the AAUP’s current salary increase demand is equivalent to 4 percent annually (3.2 percent across-the-board plus $470 flat dollar amount plus a merit/equity pool of $180,000).
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