IU officials decide to continue with employee bonus plan

IU will continue with its plan to distribute up to $500 per person to faculty and staff making less than $30,000 a year despite a meeting between IU officials and union leaders July 31.

On July 31, leaders from the Communications Workers of America Local 4730 and IU officials met to discuss the bonuses that will be distributed in December. The union wanted everyone to receive the bonuses, not just employees making less than $30,000 a year.

Peter Kaczmarczyk, president of CWA Local 4730, said IU officials turned down all three of the union’s proposals. The alternative to the bonuses for some workers included giving everyone a bonus of $215 or including the bonus in workers’ base pay.
“The University was uninterested in any kind of negotiations,” Kaczmarczyk said. “Nothing really changed.”

He said the University did not talk about any counterproposals during the meeting.
CWA Local 4730 represents support staff from the Bloomington campus and clerical/technical staff from the IU-Northwest Gary campus.

The IU trustees approved the bonuses after IU President Michael McRobbie came up with the idea while working on the budget. McRobbie first announced a salary freeze in December during a board of trustees meeting. This past month, the board of trustees approved the salary freeze that includes faculty and staff.

“When he realized he would not be able to give a general salary increase next year, he wanted to find a way to help those on the lower end of the salary,” IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said.

The bonuses can amount to as much as $500 per person, but eligible employees could receive less than $500 depending on their annual income, MacIntyre said. The bonus should not alter any eligible employees’ annual income to exceed $30,000.
Across all eight IU campuses, about 2,800 workers are slated to receive the bonuses.
Fewer than half of CWA Local 4730 members will receive the bonus.

Kaczmarczyk said the union is asking its members eligible for the bonuses to donate a portion of or their entire bonus to charity.

He said the union will continue to lobby against the freezing of all of IU employees’ wages.

“We are very much trying to make clear that the current budget is unsustainable,” he said. “We don’t see how the business of the University can continue with the staffing levels dropping the way they are.”