Slow progress is being made between Eastern’s chapter of University Professionals of Illinois and the administration. Both parties met for the second time with the federal mediator Monday. By the end of the five-hour mediation session, parties came to an agreement over two work-related issues, said Jon Blitz, the chief negotiator for the UPI/EIU.

The first issue involves the Annually Contracted Faculty (considered Unit B members) who receive a new contract yearly due to their positions.

Blitz said the UPI/EIU was able to achieve an agreement that after a certain amount of years and criteria is met, ACF’s will be able to be offered a two-year contract.

“It’s a misnomer for some, but it’s been a misnomer for a long time,” Blitz said. “Some of these ACF’s have been annually contracted for 20 years. These people that put in so many years deserve something more than one year contracts for the rest of their lives.”

The negotiation teams were also able to come to an agreement for Academic Support Professionals and the table in their contract that deals with pay ranges, although specifics could not be given, said Bob Wayland, the chief negotiator for the administration.

“These were two issues that have been unresolved for some time, so I feel we’ve made some progress,” Wayland said. “It’s slow and painful, but we’ll hopefully come to an agreement.”

Blitz said the negotiations have been a slow process, but there has been some clarification on some key issues.

“There was some incremental progress,” he said. “It wasn’t a waste of time, we’re still making some headway– not necessarily enough to get us an agreement though.”

The UPI/EIU and the administration negotiation teams will next meet with the mediator on Dec. 13. Both sides hope that an agreement can be made by the end of this session.

“My hopes are we get a contract, but whether we get one or not I wouldn’t put odds on it,” Blitz said. “It’s in the administration’s court- if they can meet some of our demands and they are well aware of them, then we are ready to deal. At this point, what we’ve seen is a brick wall on many of the things that are most important to us under the guise of management rights. Unless that changes to some extent, we are not going to get an agreement.”

Wayland said he feels that an agreement could be reached by the end of the next mediation session.

“I’m very hopeful that we will,” Wayland said. “We narrowed it down to a much smaller number of unresolved issues. We’re trying to find some middle ground if we are going to resolve them at all.”

Despite the polarization between the two parties during this process, the administration has been a willing party during the negotiations, Wayland said.

“Our goal is to get an agreement and I feel like we’ve always been willing to negotiate or bargain,” he said. “You have to remember when you negotiate or bargain, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll reach an agreement that both parties can accept. Some of these issues are very difficult for both sides and it’s difficult to find a resolution that both parties can live with.”

Although some progress has been made, there are still six to seven issues that the administration and the UPI/EIU have not yet reached an agreement on.

Shelley Holmgren can be reached at 581-7942 or meholmgren@eiu.edu