Campus police officers and dispatchers will be eagerly awaiting the Board of Trustee’s meeting this afternoon, as board members should vote on their union’s three-year contract proposal.
This vote follows six months of negotiating between the University and members of the International Union of Police Associations Local 103, after the union’s contract expired in April 2005.
And negotiations came to a climax at the Sept. 30 meeting of the Board, when they rejected an independent report showing BGSU police officers and dispatchers were paid less than almost every other college police unit in Ohio.
Union members already agreed to the proposed contract on Nov. 18, passing it by an “overwhelming majority,” according to Corporal Mark Reef, president of IUPA Local 103.
Now their future is up to the Board.
The contract calls for a $1.80 per hour market wage increase for officers, with a 3 percent payroll increase each year for three years.
For dispatchers a 65-cent per hour market increase is proposed, also with a 3 percent payroll increase each year for three years.
Facts say: big raise needed
The fact-finding examiner – appointed by the State Employment Relations Board – recommended that officers get a $2 per hour market wage increase for the first year with a 3 percent payroll increase. For the second year the fact-finder recommended a $1.75 raise and 2.75 percent increase, and for the third year a $1.50 raise with a 2.5 percent increase.
For dispatchers, a 75-cent raise was recommended for the first year with a 3 percent increase, a 65-cent raise and a 2.75 percent increase for the second year and a 55-cent raise and 2.5 percent increase for the third year.
“What it [fact-finder] did really for membership was it was a vindication that we were grossly underpaid,” said William Dunn, a business agent for the IUPA.
Dunn has negotiated and enforced several contracts with IUPA Local 103, and acts as the chief spokesman for the union at meetings with the University.
The results by the fact-finder were more than the officers expected, Reef said.
“It’s a gamble anytime we go to fact-finder. It surprised us as big as it was, what their findings were,” he said. “They had never seen that much awarded.”
But a $7 per hour raise is needed right now for officers to receive even mid-to-average pay compared to other university officers, according to Reef.
The Board’s reasons for initially rejecting the fact-finding examiner’s report included being “constrained to act within the challenges presented by lessening State support.”
“Only about 30 percent of our funding comes from the state,” said Tom Trimboli, general counsel in the President’s Office. “Not too many years ago it was twice that amount.”
Trimboli is representing the employer – BGSU -in contract negotiations.
In addition, the Board has said “its obligation to others” won’t allow them to approve the fact-finder’s suggested 45 percent base pay rates increase over a three year period.
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Mixed history
This is not the first time a fact-finder has been called on for contract negotiations.
Fact-finder was brought in 1993 to evaluate a past police union contract, and produced a report accepted by both the union and University, according to Rebecca Ferguson, assistant vice president in the department of Human Resources. In 2002 negotiators went to fact-finder again, but no report was issued.
This new contract proposal has come with compromise by the union.
Officers lost their requests for increased night and afternoon shift premiums and changes in sick leave and holiday pay, Reef said.
“It’s substantially less,” he said. “Basically the University doesn’t want to pay that kind of money. They agree we need a pay raise, but won’t do it.”
During research for the fact-finder, union members collected over 120 pages of information, and found they were seriously underpaid.
Many universities are feeling the pinch as state funding cuts are enforced, but BGSU’s officers’ wages are in the lower 25th percentile of all campus officers in Ohio, according to Reef.
If approved today, the proposed contract will bring the pay scale for campus officers “up about half way” compared to similar institutions, Reef said.
The top pay for police officers at BGSU is $32,593 per year compared to $40,497 at the University of Toledo, or $56,846 per year at The Ohio State University, according to their Human Resource departments.
For dispatchers at BGSU, the top pay is $27,372 per year compared to $25,688 at UT and $34,997 at OSU.
According to information in the fact-finding report, six years ago President Ribeau acknowledged the wage issues and committed to make changes.
But BGSU police have yet to see the change Ribeau promised, Dunn said.
“The University said it was interested in doing something but it hasn’t been done,” he said. “The matter had not been resolved.”
While bringing BGSU police employees’ pay up to par with other campus police in Ohio hasn’t happened yet, the University has given them raises each year, according to Trimboli.
“I think significant process has been made and they are being addressed by market adjustments,” he said. “The tentative agreement does have a higher wage scale than before.”
Reef said part of the reason the union wants to be on the same pay level as other campus police is because of a mutual aid agreement the University has with other Ohio schools.
BGSU officers can be called on to work at other campuses in Ohio for large events, and should therefore be paid similar wages, according to Reef.
Along with doing spot-work at other campuses – like Kent State University and OSU among others – BGSU officers have talked with them about their own contract situations.
“UT was nice enough to give us a copy of their contract,” Reef said. “As it is there’s quite a few of us working together and we’re going to keep an open dialogue.”
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Students help out
In addition to support from other universities, officers have seen student support on campus.
Luke Moneypenny, a senior who also works as a campus service officer, stood outside the Student Union in a T-shirt and shorts for three hours back on Nov. 18.
Moneypenny collected over 100 messages of support for the union on a 10-foot banner, and presented it to members as they met that day to vote on the contract.
“I love all of the officers here,” he said. “It was about just showing the officers if they hold out the support is there.”
After patrolling the streets of campus day in and day out, officers were grateful to see students support them.
“It really, really made the rest of us feel good that day,” Reef said.
Union members are hopeful the Board will accept the contract.
“We’re pretty confident they’re going to approve it because it was their proposal,” Reef said.
Board members will go into executive session at the meeting and decide whether to approve the contract.
“There will be a resolution prepared if the Board of Trustees approves the contract,” Trimboli said. “They were advised previously of the negotiations and updated.”
But regardless of the outcome of today’s vote, union members remain hopeful for negotiations down the road, according to Dunn.
“There’s more work to be done in the future and hopefully more amicably than this time,” he said.
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