Negotiators for Brown and the libraries union made headway Wednesday on a disagreement over the procedure for hours changes, said Karen McAninch '74, the union's business agent.
Originally set to expire Sept. 30, the contract was extended until Oct. 14 and again until Oct. 28.
After an unproductive start to the week's negotiations Tuesday, McAninch said Wednesday's negotiations focused on the University's desire to shorten the six-month moratorium the union could impose on changes to workers' shifts. Union workers could strike if the union and the University were not able to reach an amicable agreement during the six-month period.
McAninch said bargainers reached a "tentative resolution" to shorten this period to three months. The new agreement would stipulate that hours changes could occur only for "good business reasons," that employees must have a certain amount of notice and that workers could not be forced to work past midnight, she said.
The University was previously pushing for a policy of only 45 days' notice, according to McAninch.
"This was a big issue," she said. "Getting it resolved was a big step."
The University also offered to hire a union door guard for the Sciences Library during the day, McAninch said. Since last year's restructuring brought the elimination of 12 positions in the libraries' bargaining unit, preserving the union's bargaining power has been a high priority for the union.
With the issue of hours changes mostly put to bed, McAninch said the next issue will be language related to the University's ability to drop health care providers with wide geographic networks. But McAninch said that based on informal conversations she has had with University administrators, workers' abilities to seek out-of-state care will likely be left intact.
The last major hurdle will involve a quantitative disagreement over the percentage of health care premiums workers must contribute. Library workers currently contribute 6 percent of health care costs, and McAninch said the University is pushing to raise that portion to 15 percent in three years, with a 1.25 percent increase in pay per year.
"Until we know how the money will all pan out, everything is really contingent on that," she said.
Director of Labor and Employee Relations Joe Sarno '91 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald Wednesday night that over the past two days, the union and the University have "tentatively resolved" issues important to both sides, and the University's bargaining team looks forward to "continuing productive negotiations with the union."
The federal mediator who has been working with the parties was not available for this week's bargaining sessions. McAninch said negotiations may or may not continue Thursday afternoon, depending on the availability of the mediator.
McAninch projected the final quantitative issues would be resolved by late this week or early next week.
