11 February 2014, 10:00 p.m. – THE UNIVERSITY administration and the UST Faculty Union (USTFU) have agreed to continue talks over a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), ending a cooling-off period that was supposed to last five days.
A letter to faculty club presidents stated that the resumption of the negotiations would remove the possibility of a bargaining deadlock.
“True to the Thomasian spirit of unity and peace, the administration and the USTFU panels have resolved to end the cooling-off period of the [CBA] negotiations and continue with the formal negotiations for a just and equitable faculty CBA,” said the letter dated Feb. 10.
The letter was signed by Vice Rector for Academic Affairs Clarita Carillo, head of the administration panel, and USTFU President George Lim, head of the union panel.
USTFU Internal Vice President Rene Luis Tadle said negotiations would resume Friday, Feb. 14.
The two parties went on a cooling-off period after a meeting last Feb. 6 that sought to thresh out disagreements over the 2011-2016 CBA. A day before the meeting, several faculty members wore yellow shirts in support of the faculty union.
“We decided to go back to the [negotiating table] because the way we look at it, there is an indication that [the administrators] are receptive to our suggestions in the same way that we are receptive to their decisions,” Tadle told the Varsitarian in an interview.
The new CBA has been delayed for nearly three years. The previous five-year CBA expired in 2011, and talks were delayed due to changes in the UST administration.
A collective bargaining agreement is a contract outlining wages, hours of work, and other terms and conditions of employment. Failure of collective bargaining negotiations may lead to a deadlock.
Upon the declaration of a CBA deadlock, the union may file a notice of strike or cessation of work, while management may declare a lockout or the suspension of work and refusal to employ workers.
CBA negotiations were suspended in October 2013 following disputes within the union over the administration’s proposal to transfer promotions and reclassifications to a separate faculty manual. CBA talks resumed the following month.
Three CBAs have been inked by USTFU and the UST administration since 1996. Gena Myrtle P. Terre
