THE SAMAHANG Manggagawa-UST (SM-UST) has called on the UST Faculty Union (USTFU) to negotiate with the administration if it wants to get its share of tuition increases for the past years.
In a statement dated June 9, SM-UST said it was unfair for the faculty union to demand the immediate distribution of the faculty’s share of tuition increases “without undergoing any negotiation.”
By law, 70 percent of tuition increases go to the salaries of faculty members and employees.
SM-UST however pointed out that tuition increases were historically distributed only after a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) was signed. SM-UST and the University administration signed a new CBA for support staff in September 2019.
USTFU has yet to finalize a new CBA for faculty members four years after the expiration of the 2011-2016 CBA.
“The UST Faculty Union had the luxury of time to discuss their own concerns and demands from the UST Management last year and yet, they have not held the same meetings and discussions to work out any agreement,” read the SM-UST statement, signed by Malou Maristela, vice chairwoman of the union’s CBA panel.
“We hope that the Covid-19 pandemic will not be used as an excuse,” SM-UST said.
On June 4, the faculty union’s collective bargaining negotiators wrote Vice Rector for Finance Fr. Rolando Castro, O.P. and Vice Rector for Academic Affairs Prof. Cheryl Peralta, to immediately release tuition shares because faculty members were struggling amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
