Contact

Thomas Streeter
Telephone (802) 598-9348
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sept. 12, 2017, 9:00 am
Email thomas.streeter@uvm.edu

UVMs Faculty union declares impasse

Burlington Vermont. After a prolonged bargaining process, United Academics and the
administration of the University of Vermont have reached impasse in our negotiations. It is
unfortunate that we were unable to reach a fair contract through the bargaining process. We
are confident in the strength of our union and the justice and reasonableness of our positions.

Impasse is not an uncommon phase of the bargaining process. Almost all of our previous
contracts have come after impasse. Bargaining will continue but with the assistance of a
mediator and, perhaps, a fact-finding process.

That said, we would like to remind the community that UVM is not broke. We fully support a
sustainable budget for UVM. Our analysis of the existing budget, however, shows that if UVM
brought its spending on instruction and research into line with the average of other schools
that the administration dubs UVMs peers (schools similar to UVM), that would add $11.7
million annually to spending on instruction and research, which includes faculty salaries.

We thank our bargaining team, our members and our community allies for their support in the
process thus far. We ask all of you to support us as we continue along the path that will
ultimately lead us to a fair contract.

At this point, we begin the public phase of our campaign. We will be speaking out for the
principle of a democratic University as a community of faculty, students, staff and
administrators committed to learning together and working together for the public good.

United Academics fully shares with our students and staff the goal of a high quality, affordable,
personalized, public higher education. Our working conditions are our students learning
conditions!