The FSU has reached a tentative agreement on parking fees

11/16/2018

Dear Colleague,

The FSU has reached a tentative agreement on parking fees.  As many of you know, this has been a difficult negotiation from the beginning.  It is very rare, if ever, that we have to negotiate in essence a decrease in overall salary. Given that’s exactly what we had to do, our goal has been to minimize as much as possible any parking fee increase and protect our lowest paid members.  We have done just that. This is what we have agreed to (also, see this summary of the parking bargaining process and agreement): 

• $550 semester pass rates on campus– to be used as often as necessary
• $504 semester pass at Bayside– to be used as often as necessary
• Semesters run from Sept 1 to January 15, 2018; January 16 to May 31
• All passes are available pre-tax, which will reduce the cost of the pass by your tax rate
• For part-time NTTs and all Associate Lecturers, our lowest-paid members, a 30 park multi-park pass  purchased once/semester at $360 on campus and $270 at Bayside
• For those who teach one day/week 3:30 or later or weekends, a 15 use pass for $150/semester 
• Summer rates for sessions one or two at $70/session if you purchase a semester pass
• Issues related to handicapped parking (access, availability, rates, etc.) will be discussed in a labor management committee that will meet in January 
• Short-term parking rates on campus: $7 for up to an hour, $8 for 90 minutes; $9 for up to two hours; $10 for up to 150 minutes; $11 for up to 3 hours; $15 over 3 hours
• Bayside rates of $9/day otherwise
• Weekend and night rates (nights starting at 4 pm) of $10
• Reserved parking at $300/month

In summary, we convinced the administration to lower their proposed rates from $600 on campus/504 Bayside to $550 (on campus)/504 (Bayside) per semester, while extending the semester to 4.5 months from 4 months. This is $6.11 on campus and $5.60 off campus with pretax savings with parking 5 days/week. 

The bargaining team was able to secure the on-campus semester rate by convincing the administration that faculty are on campus an average of three days a week.  The semester rate was calculated on that basis.  However, to encourage faculty to be on campus more often the semester pass may be used as often as you like.  You will still be paying on the three day a week basis no matter how often you use it.

In addition, we convinced the administration to continue a form of multi-park pass for our lower paid members.

The summer session pass for $70, which is $2.33 per use prior to pre-tax for 30 uses. 

We understand that these rates are higher than we all wanted.  But failing to agree to this meant worse rates that the university would have imposed on us:

$600 semester pass on campus– with a shorter semester period

$504 semester pass at Bayside– with a shorter semester period

The same weekend, night, and reserved parking rates as above

The same daily rate at Bayside and on campus as above

Less generous short-term parking rates

$75 per summer session

No relief for part-time NTTs and associate lecturers

We will be holding membership meetings to discuss this tentative agreement (dates and times to be announced).  We will let you know the FSU Executive Committee’s recommendation to the members about whether or not to ratify this proposed agreement. We will hold a ratification vote the second week of December (more details to come).  We will continue to organize with the other unions for reasonable rates for our colleagues and to ensure that parking meets the needs of our members (we will be bargaining again in a year!) 

The FSU Parking Bargaining Team: Steve Ackerman, Associate Professor, Honor’s College; Caroline Coscia, Senior Lecturer II, Political Science; Mickey Gallagher, MTA Consultant; John Hess, Senior Lecturer II, American Studies/English- FSU Vice President; Heather LaPenn, MTA Consultant; Marlene Kim, Professor, Economics- FSU President; Steven Levine, Associate Professor, Philosophy; Lorenzo Nencioli, FSU Membership Coordinator