UNI faculty file complaint against regents

CEDAR FALLS -- University of Northern Iowa United Faculty, the union that represents most UNI faculty, has filed a complaint against the state Board of Regents, charging that the board failed to negotiate in good faith regarding temporary faculty pay cuts.

United Faculty in a statement Monday said the group filed a Prohibited Practice Complaint against the regents with the Iowa Public Employment Relations Board.

The complaint says the board provided misinformation and failed to negotiate in good faith in meetings earlier this year seeking to temporarily reduce UNI faculty salaries, due to state budget cuts.  The complaint says  the board continued to seek a reduction in faculty salaries even as the board had  knowledge that UNI likely would be given supplemental state appropriations of about $5 million in the coming months, a bill that Gov. Culver did sign this spring, returning money to the three regent universities.

State Board of Regents officials on Monday said they had no comment on the complaint, since it is a legal matter.

"It is difficult to have effective bargaining when one party does not share key information they have with the other side of the table," United Faculty President Cathy DeSoto said in the statement.

The complaint says the board “failed to notify United Faculty of the fact that the University of Northern Iowa was likely to be provided with additional funding, a fact in conflict with the Board's claims of a financial shortage and/or financial cuts by the state.”  The failure of the board to notify United Faculty constitutes a refusal to negotiate in good faith,  a violation of the Iowa Code, the group argues.   

In response to state budget cuts to Iowa's regent universities, the board and United Faculty  agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding, effective Jan. 1, 2010 through June 30, 2010.  That was signed Jan. 28, 2010 and it involved a reduction of faculty wages at UNI by $520,000 in exchange for a guarantee of no layoffs and no increases in teaching loads.  The cuts were scaled in a progressive manner, with average salary cut $929.