UTSF Responses to Faculty Salary Concerns
What is Status Quo?
Several members have asked for clarification on what status quo means and how it is being implemented at MSU, specifically regarding faculty grievances and salary. Maintaining the status quo means the university must continue all its established policies and procedures until the union’s first contract is ratified by union members. Click here to learn more about status quo.
Current Status Quo Concerns at MSU and What UTSF is Doing to Address Them
Overview: After the union was formally recognized, and without consultation with the union, the administration acted unilaterally to change the grievance procedure and the process for pay increases, citing legal advice from their general counsel. This is being used as MSU Administration’s justification for rejecting faculty grievances and blocking faculty’s regular salary increases. UTSF has requested that MSU Administration indicate the case law they are using to support their claims. MSU Administration has not yet provided this case law. UTSF strongly believes the MSU Administration’s interpretation of labor law is flawed.
Some faculty and librarians are concerned that raises may be withheld or delayed by MSU under a status quo justification.
In September 2025, two days after UTSF was formally recognized, MSU Administration notified the university's Steering Committee of the suspension of governance activities related to faculty salary recommendations. It is UTSF’s position that, under status quo, academic governance should have continued as it had prior to UTSF recognition. Salary recommendations would then have moved to the Provost as has been the case in previous years.
UTSF’s executive council met with MSU Administration on 3/19/2026 to discuss status quo. MSU Administration communicated to UTSF during this meeting that it is now too late for academic governance to provide salary recommendations to the Provost. They have also indicated that they took these actions with the expectation that they would negotiate salary with the union directly.
MSU Administration's expectation of negotiating with UTSF was not communicated to UTSF until the meeting with them on 3/19/2026. At this meeting, UTSF communicated that MSU Administration's unilateral changes to the process were inappropriate and appear to violate labor law.
There was agreement between UTSF and MSU Administration that the faculty should receive raises and that they should occur at the standard timeframe. MSU Administration indicated that they assumed UTSF would enter into negotiations with them separately from the full contract negotiation process.
We believe MSU Administration has violated status quo. However, UTSF remains committed to ensuring that those we represent will not go without a raise due to the administration’s actions.
As such, UTSF will make a formal demand to bargain (i.e., a formal request to negotiate) with MSU Administration regarding this year’s salary increases.
Some departments/colleges are changing policies related to overload or summer pay.
UTSF has consulted directly with MSU Administration to alert them to this status quo violation. MSU Administration stated that they have alerted unit administrators that pay policies should be maintained or reverted to Summer 2025 conditions if proposed changes disadvantage faculty.
IMPORTANT ALERT: If you have heard of any ongoing changes to summer salary in your college or department, please contact UTSF at union@utsfmsu.org.
MSU’s Faculty Grievance & Dispute Resolution Office (FGO) has told faculty and librarians that they do not have the right to grieve because of the Union.
UTSF believes this is a violation of status quo.
UTSF has held meetings and exchanged multiple emails with MSU Administration to address this action and continues to seek resolution with MSU Administration.
We have a general agreement with MSU Administration that any grievance receiving a note from the FGO denying the right to grieve will be placed in abeyance until the status quo issue is resolved. Abeyance means the clock on the grievance process will be paused.
IMPORTANT ALERT: If you, or someone you know, is in the process of filing a grievance, please contact the union’s UniServ Director, Gabe Snyder, at gasnyder@mea.org for guidance on the process. Be certain to alert him if you receive the FGO Statement denying the right to grieve and he will contact HR to put the grievance in abeyance.