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Emergency Member's MeetingPlease join us on Tuesday, January 27th at 3pm via Zoom (link went to your personal email) for an emergency members’ ratification meeting. UFE bargaining chair Rik Orndorff will present an MOU tentatively reached by the UFE and EWU bargaining teams. We will discuss the MOU and afterwards hold a ratification vote. Your UFE Executive Board has voted unanimously to recommend ratification. The E-Board has also approved to hold this meeting with fewer than 10 days’ notice because of the short timelines in the MOU for management to effectuate general salary adjustments for the 2025-2026 academic year, retroactive to last fall. You can review the MOU here: 2025-2026 General Salary Increases MOU (01-22-2026) Please plan to attend and bring two other members with you! We look forward to seeing you all next week. In solidarity and on behalf of your UFE bargaining team and executive board, Kristin Edquist UFE Interim President
Bargaining Update Dear EWU Faculty, We wanted to update you on the status of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and our current negotiations. As you know, the United Faculty of EWU has been negotiating with EWU on the CBA and hoped to have a new agreement completed by December 31, 2025. That did not happen. However, under Washington State Law, our old CBA remains the status quo until a new CBA is signed. What this means is that EWU faculty should continue to work while negotiations remain ongoing, as you will continue to receive compensation and you will be protected by the language of our 2022-2025 CBA. We understand faculty’s frustration and want you to know that we are working hard to get an agreement completed. We will be providing more information soon. We appreciate your patience and are grateful for your engagement and support in this process. Sincerely, Kristin Edquist Rik Orndorff UFE Interim President UFE VP Bargaining and Bargaining Chair
Special Election ResultsFor VP of Labor-Management Relations. 60 ballots were cast.
Special Electionfor VP of Labor-Management Relations As you know, Michael Conlin is stepping down as UFE President effective Jan. 5, 2026. Because the UFE bylaws say that the VP of Labor-Management Relations fills the Presidency in such an event, Kristin Edquist is assuming the role of UFE President on January 5th. This leaves us with a need to fill the VP of Labor-Management Relations position for the remainder of the two-year term, i.e., 18 months (January 2026-June 2027). To fill this important role the UFE is hosting a special election. We therefore are requesting nominations for the role of VP of Labor Management. Nominations will be accepted through Dec. 9th. Voting will open on Wednesday, Dec. 10th and close on Dec. 12th. See statements from the two candidates. Section 2 of Article V - Responsibilities of Officers in the UFE bylaws states that the Vice-President for Labor-Management Relations shall assist the president and shall act in the absence of the President. The primary responsibility of the Vice-President of Labor-Management Relations is to provide leadership in negotiations with management with respect to interpretations of the contract. The position comes with a 50% reassigned time from teaching (75% of this reassigned time is paid for by the UFE via our membership dues), which results in roughly 6 credits of release a term. We appreciate that this is a tight turn around but wanted to get this election completed before Winter Break. We value our members' participation in this special election. If you would like to nominate yourself or any other member please reach out to a member of the UFE Executive Board with the nomination before the end of the day Tuesday, Dec. 9th. Nominees are requested to write a brief statement about why they would like to hold this position, to be submitted (so it can be posted) before voting begins. In Solidarity, United Faculty of Eastern Executive Board
Contract NegotiationsDear EWU Faculty Member, We are writing to urge you to attend an important Zoom forum to discuss the status of contract negotiations. The forum will take place on Friday, October 31, from noon-1pm via zoom. We are in unprecedented times. For the first time since Eastern faculty unionized, the CBA has timed out without a new contract in place. The parties have signed an extension of the 2022-2025 CBA through December 31, 2025, which keeps that CBA’s language in effect. But we still have not reached agreement with management for a successor CBA. In the past, bargaining began in winter and finished by the end of spring quarter. This year we didn’t have our first bargaining session until June 24, 2025. Unfortunately, progress since then has been slow. The UFE is not at fault for this delay. UFE leaders assembled a bargaining team in the spring of 2024 and approached management about the upcoming bargain in October 2024. We brought up the need to schedule negotiations at monthly JLMC meetings in AY2024-2025, but administration did not engage. The result is the delay that you are experiencing now. Many faculty members have approached us asking why they haven't seen any salary adjustments this fall. Others are wondering about salary adjustments for promotion. We can help answer these questions. Please join us to hear more about the status of negotiations and to learn what you can do to help us negotiate a fair contract for EWU faculty. Sincerely, United Faculty of Eastern Bargaining Team
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UFE STATEMENTFebruary 12, 2025 The Executive Board of the United Faculty of Eastern affirms our support for our students, faculty and the broader Eastern community impacted by recent executive orders regarding immigration enforcement activities. We encourage our faculty to advocate for vulnerable students and to support organizations such as Latinos en Spokane. We condemn the recent executive orders regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the chilling effect such policies have on academic freedom. The UFE asserts its support for the Resolution on Reaffirming the Values of Academic Freedom passed by the Faculty Senate on February 27, 2023. Diversity is who we are: 38% of our students are non-white, 33% are first generation, and 36% receive Pell grants. Equity and inclusion are what we strive for in our teaching, advising, and mentoring to ensure all of our students know they belong and succeed in their academic endeavors. We stand with the American Association of University Professors, and our affiliates: the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), AFT Washington, the National Education Association (NEA), and the Washington Education Association (WEA) in defending our students and our freedoms as educators. We are stronger together! In solidarity, The United Faculty of Eastern Executive Board
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