Temple and the Temple Association of University Professionals have considered multiple versions of a contract extension throughout the year, as the two parties continue to meet to create the union’s new four-year contract.
TAUP, the union that represents full and part-time faculty members and librarians from 13 of Temple’s colleges, saw their contract expire on Oct. 15. There have been 10 meetings between TAUP and the university to reach an agreement on the union’s contract proposals since negotiations began in August. There are two negotiation meetings scheduled for the remaining semester, the next taking place in December.
Temple’s most recent offer extends the union’s contract to June 30, 2024. If accepted, full-time faculty, librarians and academic professionals would get a retroactive five percent raise from July 1, and adjunct faculty would receive a 12 percent retroactive increase to the minimum rate for the fall semester. Any non-tenure-track faculty member who doesn’t renew their contract with Temple will also receive severance pay equal to that of full-time staffers.
TAUP declined this offer and provided a counter-proposal for the extension during negotiations on Nov. 1, which the university is reviewing. The proposal extends the contract into January 2024 and requires that Temple accept their job security proposals, which include ensuring long-serving adjunct and non-tenure track faculty receive multi-semester or year contracts.
“If they are serious about an extension, they’re going to have to come and negotiate over job security,” said TAUP President Jeffery Doshna. “And if they don’t want to negotiate over job security, then I don’t see how an extension is possible. We’ll just keep negotiating at the table as we have been for a long time already.”
Seventy percent of Temple faculty are contingent — either pre-tenure, on a non-tenure track or serving as an adjunct faculty member — making job security the most important issue for staff, Doshna said.
TAUP’s contract negotiations come after a semester of labor battles on campus, as Temple University Graduate Student Association went on a 42-day strike last spring semester to advocate for increased wages and healthcare benefits.
“What [an extension] would do for the university, for the union, for our students, for faculty and staff is it gives us the comfort that over the course of that time, it’s going to be business as usual for them,” said Sharon Boyle, vice president of human resources. “So we continue working on the collective bargaining agreement issues, and the university continues to operate without any threat of job action.”
The university began discussing potential contract extensions as early as May, seeking to extend it to April 2025. This never developed further, as the conversations weren’t held with TAUP’s membership, Doshna said.
Another university offer came days after the sudden passing of President JoAnne Epps in September.
This offer, which would have extended the contract to mid-January, was proposed to get both parties through the semester. It was another sign, after the TUGSA strikes and presidential turnover, that the university needed stability, Boyle said.
The offer was just an extension, with no wage or job security benefits attached. TAUP countered to include raises and discussions about job security, Doshna said.
Temple’s current offer, introduced on Oct. 13, took that raise into account and made the extension last a full year. The university hasn’t responded to TAUP’s counter offer.
“We are meeting when we can meet,” Doshna said. “We are trying as best we can to accommodate everybody’s schedules. We proposed some dates that they rejected. But again, this is their full time job. And we are doing this as part of our more important, honestly, responsibilities to teaching and research and service, helping students [and] keeping university running.”
TAUP has not yet submitted proposals for wages, which is typical for labor negotiations, but they have reached some tentative agreements on non-economic proposals, Doshna said.
The union’s current non-economic proposals include improved sick leave, adequate representation on committees that supervise promotions and allowing more academic freedom in what professors teach, Doshna said.
Neither the union or university have a deadline for finishing negotiations and coming to a new contract.
“[The university has] made minimal proposals and the union has a substantial number of proposals on the table,” Boyle said. “It’ll take time to work through all of them, to give them the attention and discussion, and either come to an agreement or come to a point where some of them are withdrawn.”
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