ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATION PERSONNEL FEDERATION [LOCAL 3983]

What unions do

In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest New York Times column, she describes what it is exactly that unions do. Though unions are the most popular they have been in decades, anti-union sentiment still thrives in red states and across the nation. “Several years ago, The Atlantic ran a story whose headline made even me, a labor leader, scratch my head: ‘Union Membership: Very Sexy,’” Weingarten writes in the column. “The gist was that higher wages, health benefits and job security—all associated with union membership—boost one’s chances of getting married. Belonging to a union doesn’t actually guarantee happily ever after, but it does help working people have a better life in the here and now.” Click through to read the full column.

In defense of public education

Randi Weingarten and NYC teacher Tamara Simpson

Attacks on public education in America by extremists and culture-war peddling politicians have reached new heights (“lows” may be more apt), but they are not new. The difference today is that the attacks are intended not just to undermine public education but to destroy it.

Constitution

Please click here to download the Constitution pdf.

AFTNJ Superstorm Sandy Fund

A fund has been established in partnership with the AFT Disaster Relief Fund to assist AFTNJ members and retirees suffering losses from the storm and its aftermath. The fund is part of the union’s tradition of solidarity with members overtaken by natural or man-made catastrophes.

The fund will provide some relief— $250 per member household—to help members meet their immediate essential needs for this disaster. While we know it will not help members pay the lion share of the bills incurred by the catastrophic loss, it serves as a token to show that our union stands together.

Procedures for

Negotiations Update

As of July 31, 2012, we have had 7 negotiating sessions. We are pleased to inform you that we have made progress at each session. We are still meeting on a regular basis as well as meeting as a team in between each session.

As a side note, our unit member, John Landers, attended the national AFT Conference in Detroit this past week. We look forward to hearing about his experience at our next membership meeting in the fall. MORE

May 2012 - Negotiations Update

As you probably already know, our negotiating team is taking on a new approach to bargaining this time around - it’s referred to as "interest-based bargaining.”

Historically, we have engaged in conventional collective bargaining where we would focus on particular sections of the contract we believed needed to be improved or updated. Then we would present proposals and counterproposals and argue our positions until we reached a settlement that we could recommend to you for ratification.

Our new approach involves going through every article of the contract, line by line. Both parties engage in discussions rather than arguments as they express their views. As a result, some articles are signed off unchanged while others undergo minor or major changes. We are also attempting to correct typos and grammatical errors throughout the process.

So far, we have been meeting on a fairly regular schedule – every other week. The team also meets in between sessions to prepare for upcoming sessions. While we cannot disclose details due to the confidential nature of collective bargaining, we can say that we are moving at a respectable pace and hope to begin bargaining the economic portion of the contract fairly soon.

As always, we thank you for your support and patience and can assure you we are doing everything possible to bring you a fair and equitable contract as soon as possible.
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