"PSU faces financial difficulties in conjunction with the national and state economic crises. The university will take a 13% cut in state appropriations, representing a $20 million reduction. In the event of passage of ballot measures to rescind tax increases, further budget reductions are estimated at $2.1 million. In response to these extraordinary circumstances, PSU-AAUP has agreed to accept salary reductions for our bargaining unit. These reductions will be applied equally across the employees work year and represent a number of mandatory unpaid days off, or leave days."
Under the current proposal, my pay cut would be 2.54% with 5 mandatory leave days. Of course, these days can't affect your teaching. So what is it going to impact? That leaves my research and service. Will they consider that when I come up for tenure? "Oh, you had these leave days, so we'll lower our expectations in terms of service and research." Not happening!! We in academia don't work 9-5 so these leave days are just a way to make us feel a little better about the salary cuts.
At PSU, the faculty is unionized. Every professor is a so-called "fairshare member". What does that mean? Well, AAUP, our union, takes almost $19 out of my paycheck each month, no matter if I want to or not. What's fair about that? And what do I get in return? NOTHING! Because in order to vote on this tentative agreement, you have to be a full member, which requires more dues, of course. Is this really in the spirit of the labor movement that fought for workers' rights last century?
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