This week’s numbers prove it: staff without a union at the University of Vermont receive less than their union represented faculty counterparts, year after year.

It is because of injustices like this that, last week, University Staff Union-NEA announced that it was beginning a drive to collect signatures to start an official staff union at UVM.

“We have been met with an overwhelmingly positive response to the question of unionizing,” said Michele Patenaude, a member of USU-NEA’s leadership team who works at the Bailey Howe Library on campus.

Looking at UVM’s own information University Staff Union-NEA ran the numbers that show staff salaries in recent years have increased less than half as much as faculty salaries.

*Data from the UVM Sourcebooks:   http://www.uvm.edu/~isis/?Page=sbook0.html

The data shows a break in 2003, when the faculty bargained their first contract.  United Academics-AAUP/AFT affiliated faculty negotiated to keep their percent increase relatively constant, while staff salaries have consistently slid downhill.

Staff members have not seen a cost-of-living increase since 2009. Meanwhile, merit pay for staff—the practice of paying staff more for improved quality of their work—has been eliminated. Moreover, medical insurance costs continue to increase.

These numbers are a useful starting point in beginning to assess where the University is spending money. However, they do not include what the budget has looked like to the people who work here at UVM.

The President’s message shows us that staff salaries and benefits are a smaller portion of the total UVM budget than they were in 2002.  From the information above, we can see which group on campus has borne the majority of these budget reductions.

Strong representation matters when it comes time to negotiate a contract.  That is why University Staff Union – NEA will stand up for University of Vermont Staff at the bargaining table.