City Council - Dr. Owens- Shrewd Negotiator

Read the article below about settlement in the union teacher contract at Cincinnati State. The union won---what a sweetheart deal. Get paid the overtime, never heard of in higher education (overload compensation), and pay below 10% of health benefits. Not one of Dr. Owens finer negotiating moments. You have to be a corporate officer today to get an employment contrct, yet, in education and public safety, you get all the best perks. And to have a Master's or pHD, and get paid 1.5 salary, or double time on Sunday....where have I been. Trade in stock options for this deal.

But in spite of giving in to the teachers at State, Dr. Owens is eating the lunch of those in Middletown in the negotiations. $10,000 scholarship, no money put in the pot by Cincinnnati State, Middletown and Cates behind scene working like mad with HEP to get the deal done, and all student recruitment and all the heavy lifting by city of Middletown to bring in students. So, he's Won 1 to Donham, Lost 1 to his campus,

Amazing how he fumbled ball at Cincinnati State with union teachers, but is taking no prisoners with the city of Middletown. Too easy, like shooting fish in a barrel with a shotgun in my humble opinion. Also shows on these contract deals with employee heath benefits staying at or below 10%, everyone locking in now expecting SR5 to go down in defeat. I'm leaving my day job and plan on entering teaching or city administration. Or maybe becoming a "negotiator."

Six board members present at the meeting unanimously accepted the three-year contract effective this fall. The meeting lasted 10 minutes.

Negotiations have been ongoing since May and were most recently accelerated by a one-week strike in September by faculty members, said Pam Ecker, communications director of Cincinnati State’s chapter of American Association of University Professors.

Ecker said the main point of discussion was determining the workload for teachers once the college switches to semesters next fall.

“We accepted 36 contact hours, or workload units, over two semesters,” Ecker said. “That’s 20 percent more than the Ohio standard for community colleges, which is 30 hours.”

Ecker said the agreement was accepted by union members at their meeting Wednesday — a vote of 136 to 15.

Ecker said faculty accepted a zero percent raise for the current school year, but 2.75 percent raises will be seen each year from 2012-14. Ecker said this current year is the only time faculty has been without a raise in the union’s history.

Faculty will also remain at a level of $538 per unit of “overload compensation,” but the amount increases to $600 in 2012.

“Today represents the ability of the whole college to move forward and focus our energies on our most precious asset — our students,” said Cathy Crain, board chair.

Also part of the contract, union members will continue contributing 6 percent of their health insurance contribution but the amount will rise to 8 percent after Jan. 1, 2013.

Dr. O’dell Owens said at the meeting he was happy the contract bargaining is complete.

“There are so many good things happening at this place,” Owens said, that have been overshadowed during the process.