The University of Vermont’s faculty union filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the Vermont Labor Relations Board on Tuesday, alleging that the university’s administration is improperly increasing faculty members’ workloads.
United Academics, which represents roughly 700 full-time and part-time faculty members, also filed a grievance alleging that UVM administrators declined to offer professors a corresponding increase in compensation to account for the extra work.
The dispute stems from a university-wide shift to a new “learning management system,” or educational software platform. Faculty are expected to begin using that new system by the fall, United Academics said in a Tuesday press release, a switch that the union argued is labor-intensive and should qualify as an added workload.
The administration, however, abruptly pulled out of negotiations over the transition and told faculty that they could submit a grievance over the issue, according to the union.
“That’s a sort of basic tenet of the contract,” Eleanor Miller, the union president, said in an interview Tuesday. “You can’t tell us to do more work without paying us or reducing (our) other workload.”
Enrique Corredera, a UVM spokesperson, said in an email that the university “is aware of the Unfair Labor Practice charge and looks forward to providing its position to the Vermont Labor Relations Board at the appropriate time.”
The action highlights the deteriorating relationship between the university’s faculty and administration.
Last week, the union submitted an op-ed to media outlets alleging that the university engages in union-busting and “flouts (union contracts) with tactics borrowed directly from the corporate playbook.”
In 2022, United Academics said, the union submitted a record high of 17 grievances against the administration.
“I would say that interactions with the administration have probably never been as fraught as they are right now,” Miller said.