The University of Connecticut Professional Employees Association came to a contract agreement with the University in late December. The members voted in favor of the contract 3:1 in mid January and the University's Board of Trustee's approved the contract last week. While it is good to see a contract move forward, this agreement has limited cross-over for A&R for many reasons. Foremost, UCPEA negotiates with the University, they do not negotiate with the State in the same manner that we engage the State. Our negotiations are tied directly to the Governor's/Legislature's personnel costs while UConn has a block grant from which they have wide discretion on how the funds are utilized.
The biggest change in the UCPEA contract is that they are moving from a 35 hr work week to a 40hr work week. This will be a 14% increase in hours and their wages will increase only 10%. The employees will then receive a 2% raise in 2016 followed by 1% in 2017, 2018, 2019, & 2020. This has been represented as a 3.2% raise each year. The bulk of their wage increase is via the extended hours, not due to the GWI. Because they increased hours more than their pay raises, they essentially reduced their hourly wages before applying their GWI.
UCPEA did not lose holidays, vacation time, grievance procedures, or anything that the State is seeking to obtain from A&R. If the goal of the State is to unify the contracts, then the first contract to be ratified defies all that they are expecting the rest of the unions to agree to.