TO:   Board of Regents

FROM:   Sue Hill, Director, Labor Relations and Personnel

RE:   Approval of Tentative Agreement with Vocational-Technical Educators of Montana

DATE:   March 21-22, 2002

Attached is a summary of the tentative agreement with the Vocational-Technical Educators of Montana (VTEM). The summary only includes the sections of the agreement where changes were made. The entire contract is available for review on line at https://mus.edu/hr/cba/collbarg.html. This agreement covers the faculty at the Colleges of Technology in Billings, Butte and Great Falls.

The changes to sections 1.1, 2.1.A, 2.1.B and 4.10 are housekeeping in nature and merely reflect changes in the bargaining unit structure and affiliation. A substantive change was made in section 9.2. The notice of termination of probationary faculty in their third and fourth years was changed from January 15 to February 15 to allow for consideration of spring semester enrollments.

Salaries will increase by 3.5% effective November 1, 2001 and by 3.7% effective November 1, 2002. Salary minimums at each level were increased by a like amount. Experience points will no longer be awarded to continuing faculty. They will in the future be used only to set salaries for newly hired faculty.

Workload issues have been a major topic of negotiations in past years. The tentative agreement specifies that specific issues regarding faculty workload are to be resolved at the campus level utilizing appropriate union/management committees.

I recommend approval of the tentative agreement with VTEM. The bargaining unit will have voted to ratify the tentative agreement prior to the Regents meeting or this item will be withdrawn.