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Dear members and friends, While our bargaining team continues to negotiate a new full-time contract for faculty, the most recent contract remains in effect. UA’s Contract Administration Committee (CAC) hosts several Know Your Faculty Rights virtual sessions to share key contract provisions and highlights. Paid medical leave, for example: after the first year of employment, full-time faculty members are entitled to 26 weeks of paid medical leave, on a rolling 12 month basis. That is an important benefit. Recently, we spoke with a faculty member who described needing major surgery within the last couple of years. She told us she wished she’d realized she was entitled to paid medical leave; she hadn’t taken any. For other faculty members, 26 weeks of paid medical leave has been a literal lifesaver. That’s why we’ve started offering Know Your Faculty Rights info sessions every fall semester. The content in these info session is based on some of the questions we hear most frequently about the contract. Contract negotiations go far beyond salary increases and also cover detailed benefits, appointments and evaluation, faculty governance, union rights, workload, disciplinary procedures, and more. But a good contract doesn’t help faculty if we don’t take advantage of its benefits. Our union puts in the work bargaining every last detail of a great contract, and we want members to utilize it fully. We also have to continually work to enforce it, through our strong Contract Administration Committee. Finally, members: next Friday 10/18 we have another long bargaining session scheduled, as well as a Delegates Assembly meeting (details below). Sincerely, Suzy and Katlyn
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