Dear AU Community,

Since our August update, we have continued good faith labor negotiations with the Provost and Enrollment Division staff bargaining unit represented by SEIU Local 500. The 22 negotiating sessions held since April produced substantial progress. We believe that an agreement can be reached. On Monday, we presented a comprehensive offer to the union addressing all the unresolved issues. This offer is responsive to the 24 new articles and other substantial proposals made by the union during the course of negotiations, furthers our mission and operations, and supports our students with the in-person, on-campus experience so critical to a residential college education. As always, you can find the latest bargaining updates on the Labor Relations webpage and every Wednesday in AU Now.

To date, we have achieved significant progress and solid outcomes, reaching tentative agreements (pending approval of the full negotiated package) on multiple union proposals, including:

• A revised process for full time employee evaluations;
• A new reorganization procedure featuring additional notification and information sharing practices with the union;
• Updated grievance and arbitration procedures;
• A new freedom of expression article that provides protection for off-campus speech in accordance with University policies;
• Creation of a working group to address topics regarding transgender employees; and
• Protections for non-citizen employees if they face legal action related to their immigration status.

Additionally, over the course of the last two bargaining sessions, we made the following new offers in response to union proposals:

• We proposed to bargain with the union and other employees to develop an equitable, transparent, and sustainable compensation methodology. This topic has been a priority for the union since 2022. To reinforce our commitment on this measure, the university offered guaranteed future compensation increases if the new salary framework is not complete by July 2027.
• The university offered employees two weeks of fully remote work during the year to supplement our current modality flexibility, and we offered to pause any university-wide changes to staff modality arrangements through June 2027.
• We offered to extend the university’s winter break closure for employees, allowing for a two-week winter break.
• The university proposed maintaining current tuition remission benefits for two years and to establish a program for evaluating requests to make graduate course remission tax exempt.   
• We proposed to hold employee parking rates at current levels for two years and to reduce first-time parking fines by 50 percent. 
• We offered the union representation on the Benefits Advisory Project Team in order to have input on the selection of future benefit providers.
• The university proposed new protocols involving the use of AI technology including assurances of continued human oversight of personnel decisions and bargaining unit representation on the university committee convened to discuss reasonable use of AI on campus.
• We put forward a clarification on the process for employees to address concerns they may have about workplace bullying and other misconduct.
• To support the efficiency and productivity of bargaining sessions, the university confirmed eligibility for up to 10 bargaining unit employees to participate in the sessions with full pay (regardless of their exempt or non-exempt employment status).

One of the major outstanding issues in the negotiations is wages. These are challenging times for colleges and universities across the nation, including American University. Federal higher education policy actions are creating uncertainty, instituting new costs and regulatory burdens, and draining research resources. Like most other colleges and universities, we have taken a number of financial measures to align the FY 2026 budget, such as forgoing compensation increases across the whole university this year.

Negotiating wage increases against this backdrop is difficult, but despite the economic hurdles, we prioritized our limited existing resources to supporting people at the lower end of our pay scale. To advance priorities shared by the union and the university, we offered to provide 2 percent wage increases this year to our employees earning less than $60,000 annually. We also offered 2 percent compensation increases for all staff in years two and three of the contract. These proposed increases will require additional budget care and scrutiny in these uncertain times, but we are committed to supporting our people.

The other unresolved matter is the union’s ongoing demand to limit the university’s ability to modify work-from-home arrangements based on operational and student needs. Providing our students with a high-quality on-campus, in-person experience is fundamental to our mission and a residential college education. We are committed to an efficient and effective workplace modality that provides flexibility to both the university and our teams. Residential universities around the country have predominantly in-office operations, with 46% of institutions fully in-person according to EAB research. In an effort to meet the union’s concern, we also offered employees working in a hybrid modality the added flexibility to work remotely for an additional two weeks a year, and we committed not to make university-wide changes to existing hybrid schedules through June 2027.

We are committed to reaching a fair and comprehensive agreement and have made numerous compromises and concessions to union proposals. The tentative agreements reached and our additional offers provide a mutually beneficial framework that meets many of the union priorities and proposals, conforms with the university’s financial responsibilities and realities, and provides a productive path to successfully completing negotiations. We hope the union is committed to the same outcome and the same spirit of compromise. We look forward to the union’s response to our offer, and will provide further updates as we move forward.

Sincerely,

Jonathan R. Alger
President, American University