Miami University and FAM/AAUP-AFT held their initial bargaining sessions to negotiate a successor collective bargaining agreement on March 11 and 12, 2026. The parties’ current agreement, ratified on April 3, 2025, remains in effect through June 30, 2026. The parties are scheduled to resume bargaining on March 23 and 24 to continue negotiations.

March 11, 2026 Session

During the first session on March 11, the parties exchanged proposals on multiple substantive articles and topics. The Union presented proposals on Compensation (Article 14), Benefits (Article 15), Appointment and Promotion of Tenure-Track and Tenured Faculty (Article 12), Leaves (Article 18), Professional Development Leaves and Appointments (Article 19), No Strike/No Lockout (Article 28), and Association Rights (Article 7), along with new proposals on Shared Governance and Artificial Intelligence.

The Union's compensation proposal includes 4% annual salary increases, flat-dollar base salary adjustments of $1,500 to $2,500, higher promotional raises and minimum salaries ($72,000 for Assistant, $84,000 for Associate, $105,000 for Senior/Full), increased overload pay to $1,500 per credit, and revised summer/winter term compensation and health insurance contribution language.

The Union's Benefits proposal also seeks to preserve existing health-plan cost-sharing language, extend certain benefit eligibility to domestic partners, and provide annual recreation center and parking passes. The Union's Leaves proposal would increase paid parental leave, and its Professional Development Leaves and Appointments proposal would extend Faculty Improvement Leave eligibility to TCPL faculty and increase the number of such leaves awarded.

The Union's Artificial Intelligence proposal would restrict the University's use of AI in connection with bargaining unit work, faculty intellectual property, and faculty evaluations, and would provide that academic freedom includes the freedom to use or abstain from using AI.

The Union's Association Rights proposal seeks to double the number of faculty members entitled to workload equivalency service credits for FAM-related activities from three to six, and to increase the number of workload equivalency releases available each academic year for union-related activities.

On the first day of bargaining, the University presented proposals on Compensation (Article 14), Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment (Article 10), Labor-Management Meetings (Article 5), Faculty Evaluations (Article 16), Performance Improvement Plans (Article 17), Separability (Article 9), and No Strike/No Lockout (Article 28).

The University's initial compensation proposal includes 1% annual salary increases for the contract years AY 2026-27, AY 2027-28, and AY 2028-29. It maintains the current agreement's overload teaching rate of $1,025 per credit and summer/winter term compensation at 3% per credit, and conditions eligibility for overload and summer/winter assignments on satisfactory evaluations and the absence of an active Performance Improvement Plan.

The University's Separability proposal adds language stating that standards, policies, and systems adopted by the University's Board of Trustees under Ohio law are not appropriate subjects for collective bargaining and prevail over any conflicting provision of the Agreement.

Both parties presented proposals on No Strike/No Lockout. The University's proposal expands the definition of prohibited strike activities to include examples such as withholding or delaying grades, refusing to submit required assessments or reports, and work-to-rule campaigns, while also clarifying that faculty members engaging in prohibited conduct are not entitled to pay or benefits during such periods.

March 12, 2026 Session

During the second session on March 12, the parties continued to exchange proposals and counter proposals.

The Union presented counter proposals on Compensation (Article 14), Labor-Management Meetings (Article 5), Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment (Article 10), and Appointments (Article 11).

In its compensation counter proposal, the Union adapted some of the University's language regarding merit increases, discretionary retention offers, and supplemental payments, while maintaining its earlier proposals on annual increases and minimum salaries. The Union’s Labor-Management Meetings counter proposal accepted the University's language on the number of representatives, but proposed meeting every 60 days instead of once each term, and proposed exchanging agendas one business day before meetings instead of two.

The Union’s Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment counter proposal accepted most of the University's changed language but added non-legally protected classes of caste and citizenship status as protected categories, and added language regarding regional campus and TCPL faculty as equitable partners in the University community.

In its Appointments counter proposal, the Union added reappointment letters to the notice requirements, added a link to the faculty workload policy, and proposed limiting references to Board policy to policies adopted pursuant to law.

On day two, the University presented proposals on Appointments (Article 11), Appointment and Promotion of Tenure-Track and Tenured Faculty (Article 12), Appointment, Renewal and Promotion of TCPL Faculty (Article 13), Faculty Evaluations (Article 16), Management Rights (Article 8), and Financial Exigency and Academic Reorganization (Article 22).

The University's Appointment and Promotion of Tenure-Track and Tenured Faculty proposal added language providing that hiring, renewal, tenure and promotion processes, criteria and decisions will be administered in accordance with applicable law and Board policy, with Board policy controlling to the extent there is a conflict. It also added a new section stating that post-tenure review will be governed exclusively by the Board of Trustees' Post-Tenure Review policy.

Similarly, the University's TCPL Faculty proposal added language that all hiring, renewal, and promotion processes and decisions shall be administered in accordance with applicable law and Board policy.

In the University's Faculty Evaluations proposal, the University emphasized that evaluation criteria, standards, weighting, and manner of assessment are matters of academic and professional judgment, and that evaluations must comply with Board of Trustees' policies on faculty evaluation and workload, with Board policy controlling in the event of any conflict with divisional or departmental policies.

The University's Management Rights proposal added language that management rights include the right to determine and revise institutional priorities, academic program offerings, the deployment of instructional resources, and the manner in which academic and operational services are delivered. The proposal also added language that the definition of academic matters includes faculty assignments and judgments concerning competence, performance, academic standards, instructional quality, scholarship, service contributions, and professional qualifications. The proposal further added that any right of bargaining unit faculty members to create or recommend policies regarding the operation of the University are advisory in nature unless otherwise expressly provided in the Agreement or adopted by the University.

In its Financial Exigency proposal, the University added a new section addressing the Board of Trustees' authority in matters of financial exigency and academic reorganization.

The parties did not reach any tentative agreements during these initial sessions. The University and FAM/AAUP-AFT will continue to negotiate in future bargaining sessions.

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