Dear Fellow Goddard Staff Union Members,

There have been 3 Bargaining Meetings between the CG Administration team and the GC Staff Union Bargaining team since our last update to you.

On April 15

– The meeting centered on the topic of “ground rules”, and the meeting was not particularly productive, except that the Staff Union Team would not agree to what amounted to a “truce” (Administration’s term) and a promise of silence.

– The financial state of the college was presented as difficult and it was presented in very broad terms.

On May 7

– Some progress was made as both sides agreed to several general proposals and agreed to counter on other specific proposals at the next meeting.

– Although we had expected more specifics on financial data, no specific data was presented.

– The Staff Union team stated that their intention was to use much of the current Employee Handbook as a blueprint for guiding the content of the CBA.

– We also agreed that it would be acceptable to research ways to reduce costs for health insurance benefits.

On May 16

– Additional general proposals were agreed to. The HR Director, Jill Muhr, announced that there was progress made in finding savings for health benefits costs while not reducing the coverage significantly.

– CFAO Faith Brown presented an overview of the financial state of the college. The numbers presented indicated that the decline in enrollment balanced against the current obligations of the college continues to grow the deficit at a rate that is not sustainable.

The good news is that we have jointly scheduled 6 additional meetings before the end of June with the intention of finding points of mutual agreement. We will continue to work together towards the goal of a secure, healthy, and democratic college community as well as a successful college in the future.

Thank you for your continued support in these difficult times.

The UAW 2322 Goddard College Staff Union Negotiating Team