Representatives of the Unity Negotiations Team and the Emergency Action Council met today in “A” building. The representatives reviewed events during the three-week negotiations hiatus. Not much has happened. One problem we have in reaching a settlement is that management has proposals for changes in working conditions for the Culinary Faculty that seem to address no problem. The Academy of Culinary Arts enrollment is up significantly − all the kitchens are full. The Culinary Faculty have always been flexible in meeting the needs of the students. Often over the years the ACA has been praised by professional organizations for the quality of the program.

In an effort to understand where these proposals were coming from, Klaus Muller, Dean of the Academy, asked Dr. Wexler to talk to the Culinary Faculty about the future of the ACA. I was not at the meeting, but it was agreed by the Faculty and others present, that the presentation was very vague. It was nothing like a business plan, no specifics, more like the beginning of a vision. In the question and answer period, Dr. Wexler often responded, “I don’t know”. Unfortunately we know no more now than we did before.

Tomorrow morning at 11 a.m., we will be negotiating the Academic Faculty contract and possibly the ACCCOSAP contract. At that time, I hope we will get signals that the Board wants to settle. I will post a paragraph tomorrow night to let you know how it went.

Someone has suggested that I set up a matching game where I list in one column the top administrators’ salaries and in another file their percent salary increase for this year arranged randomly. The goal will be to match the administrator with the administrator’s increase. Sound like fun? Will Parsons, Unity Negotiations Coordinator