Prospects for Collective Bargaining Revisions

By Kent Ervin, Past President, NFA

The Nevada Faculty Alliance’s bill to authorize collective bargaining for NSHE professional employees, AB224, was passed by the 2023 legislature on a bipartisan basis—further in the process than in our prior two attempts—but was vetoed by Governor Lombardo along with a record 74 other bills. What are the prospects moving forward?

• Because AB224 was vetoed after the end of the 2023 session, it will come back to the legislature in 2025 for a possible override vote.  Such votes to reconsider are rare—legislators usually prefer to start fresh with the Governor in a new session. However, the record number of post-session vetoes by the Governor is also unique. An override vote would require two-thirds supermajorities in both houses. Democrats had a 28-14 supermajority in the Assembly in 2023, but with 13-8 were one short in the Senate. There are at least three Senate seats that could flip in the 2024 general election and several Assembly swing seats are in the balance. Even if an override for AB224 is possible by the numbers, it is uncertain how its effective date of July 1, 2023, or the appropriation from the 2023-2025 general fund to support the administration of collective bargaining would be handled.

• If an override for AB224/2023 is not in the cards, a new bill could be introduced in the 2025 session.  The hearings on AB224 and negotiations with NSHE and other stakeholders resulted in changes that should ease the process, but the bill would likely need to be rewritten if the amendment to remove the Board of Regents from the state constitution is approved by the voters in 2024.  An unknown will be the position of the new NSHE interim chancellor and administration.  Under Acting Chancellor Erquiaga, NSHE was officially neutral but fought AB224 through unreasonable fiscal notes and evident lobbying with the Governor—despite a majority of the regents being in support of the bill it was never brought for a vote on an official position by the Board of Regents. Prospects for a new collective bargaining bill depend on the makeup of the legislature and on engagement with the Governor.

• In Spring 2022, the NFA proposed revisions to the internal NSHE Professional Staff Collective Bargaining Regulations (Title 4, Chapter 4 of the NSHE Handbook) and worked with the Council of Faculty Senate Chairs to get the proposal on the agenda for the Board of Regents. Acting Chancellor Erquiaga put a stop to that before the proposal reached the Board, with the excuse that changes were also being proposed through legislation and would need to be changed again if passed. NSHE policy cannot go as far as statute (for example, providing access to the state Government Employees–Management Relations Board) and Title 4 does not have the force of law, but the current Handbook provisions are obsolete and self-contradictory and need to be updated. Handbook revisions can be proposed either through the Faculty Senates or directly with regents.

The Nevada Faculty Alliance will be engaging will all decision-makers to pursue these options to establish more mainstream standards for collective bargaining for faculty and other professional employees. The NFA Political Action Committee will also be active in promoting candidates who are supportive of collective bargaining.

Adjournment sine die of the 82nd Session of the Nevada Legislature was on June 5, followed by two special sessions through June 14. But for NSHE faculty it wasn’t finally resolved until June 30 when the Board of Regents approved the 12% cost-of-living adjustment for NSHE academic and administrative faculty effective July 1.

We thank legislative leadership for the historic compensation package for state employees in AB522, Governor Lombardo for signing the bill, the institutional Presidents and acting Chancellor for recommending the full 12% for faculty (after some pushed for lower percentages), and the Board of Regents for the final approval. But we can also thank our union partners who lobbied alongside us, and our NFA members for actively supporting our advocacy in the legislature, for communicating with their Presidents, and for showing up at the Board of Regents. On June 30 there were over 65 written public comments, an hour of oral comment, and individual regents reported receiving over 100 emails from NFA members and other faculty. Collective action bears fruit!

Kent Ervin's detailed report on the legislative session including a summary and all bills and budget items is available for your information. Our big disappointment was of course the Governor's veto of AB224, collective bargaining for NSHE professional employees—but on this third try it went further than ever before with bipartisan passage by the legislature. The full post-mortem on AB224 is included in the report. Rest assured that NFA will be working on collective bargaining again in the legislature, as well as on ensuring we get our full 11% COLAs on July 1, 2025, with your support.

NFA Member Update on Proposed Compensation and Benefits for NSHE Faculty and Professional Staff

The NFA has persistently advocated for competitive compensation and benefits for NSHE professionals and all state employees during this and past legislative sessions. With very strong revenues in the state budget currently and forecast, and facing an unprecedented state employee retention and hiring crisis, the Governor’s executive budget made a good start with cost-of-living adjustments and retention bonuses. Now the leadership of the Assembly and Senate has doubled up with a historic package of enhancements to mitigate the retention and hiring crisis throughout the state. The Nevada Faculty Alliance is grateful for these proposed and historic improvements, which still require approval of the Legislature and Governor.  Details below.

• The NFA greatly appreciates the historic proposed compensation and benefits for state employees including NSHE professionals.
• Increasing compensation and benefits to more competitive levels is essential for attracting and retaining high-quality faculty and professional staff for NSHE, and to mitigate the high vacancy rates of Classified staff across state government including NSHE.
• We strongly urge the Legislature and Governor to fully fund the COLAs and other compensation and benefits enhancements for NSHE professionals.  Bridge funding for non-state-funded programs should be provided to cover the compensation increases until other funding sources can be secured.

Proposed compensation and benefits for NSHE administrative and academic faculty (our preliminary understanding is based on the work session discussion on March 30 and is subject to change; changes for Classified staff depend on collective bargaining unit agreements and are not detailed here):

1.  Cost-of-living adjustments(additions to base salaries)

• 2% on April 1, 2023  (SB440)
• Additional 10% on July 1, 2023
• Additional 4% on July 1, 2024

The resulting cumulative COLA for the biennium is 16.7%.

2.  One-time retention bonuses (for full-time NSHE faculty up to a maximum salary, probably $100K to $120K)

• $500 for employees as of 3/31/2023 (AB268, signed by Governor)
• $500 for employees as of 6/15/2023 (AB268)
• $250 per quarter for FY2024 and FY2025 ($1000 per year

3.   Longevity Payments (new for NSHE professional employees)

• Starting at 8 years of service, $150/year
• Additional $50/year for 9 to 14 years of service
• Additional $100/year for 15 to 25 years of service
• Additional $150/year for 26 to 30 years of service

Maximum is $2350/year for 30 or more years of service

4.   PEBP Benefits for FY2024

• Same plan design and employee premiums as FY2023
• Additional $300 into an HSA or HRA account on 7/1/2023 for all employees on PEPB, from excess reserves accumulated in FY2022.
• Additional amounts into HSA or HRA accounts on 7/1/2023 and 7/1/2024 based on dependent tiers: $300 for employee only, $400 for employee plus spouse, $400 for employee plus children, $500 for employee plus family. These amounts would be funded from the state general fund.
• By PEBP Board action, the dental annual maximum is being increased from $1500 to $2000.
• Long-term disability insurance apparently would not be restored. NFA continues to advocate for the essential safety net of LTD Insurance for state employees, who are not eligible for Social Security Disability.

5.   Retirement Contributions

• For faculty on the NSHE Retirement Plan Alternative, an increase of the mandatory employee contribution from 15.5% to 17.5% starting on 7/1/2023 (offsetting the 10% COLA on 7/1/2023 for take-home pay by minus 2%) and an increase in the employer contribution into the RPA 401a retirement account from 15.5% to 17.5%.
• For faculty in PERS in the Employee/Employer Pay Plan, the employee contribution will be reduced from 15.5% in FY2023 to about 10.0% on 7/1/2023 (increasing take-home pay by an additional 5.5% with no change to PERS retirement benefits). The employer contribution from the State to PERS will increase from 15.5% in FY2023 to about 25.0% on 7/1/2023.  (updated 4/15/2023)

Funding and the NSHE budget

The funding of the compensation and benefits package for NSHE is not entirely clear from the public discussion at the work session on 3/30/2023 because the NSHE funding was not broken out. Generally, the Legislature proposes to fund this package for the state General Fund portion of the NSHE budgets (i.e., with the expectation that student fees and tuition for instructional budgets and other fees for self-funded programs should cover the rest).  The difficulty for the various institutions to fund the compensation increases for non-state-funded personnel and programs varies, especially for the increases that go into effect immediately near the end of FY 2023 and at the beginning of FY 2024.  We urge the Legislature to consider bridge funding for non-state-funded programs with one-time funds.

Statement of the State Board of the Nevada Faculty Alliance on SJR7*

To the Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections

For the SJR7* Hearing on March 21, 2023

The Nevada Faculty Alliance (NFA) is affiliated with the American Association of University Professors, the premier national organization advocating for academic freedom, shared governance, and faculty rights in higher education.

The NFA is neutral on SJR7*, the constitutional amendment to remove the Board of Regents and its election from the Nevada Constitution.  We have members on both sides, although recent history has swayed more of our members toward support.

We would like to provide some background information.

The NFA is very concerned about academic freedom and the potential for political and partisan interference in curriculum and academic standards. In the past two years especially, academic freedom has been under unprecedented attack by state legislatures and governors around the country.

Question 1, narrowly defeated in 2020, had a clause regarding academic freedom, but as written it would actually have endangered academic freedom. SJR7* is silent on academic freedom. In the 2021 legislative session, we offered an amendment to protect academic freedom, but it gained no traction.  The constitutional independence of a governing board provides some protection for academic freedom; however, today we see both elected and appointed boards becoming politicized and they do not necessarily protect the principles we value.

We all have a vital interest in having a fully functioning Board of Regents serving students and Nevada. The Nevada System of Higher Education more often asserts its constitutional authority over personnel issues and its own power structure than in defense of academic freedom or educational policy.  Our hope is that we can protect our principles in the future through collective bargaining agreements and contract law.

We are neutral but we reserve the right to change to support as we hear more from our members. We remain willing to work with you to add true protection of academic freedom to the constitution.

Thank you.

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The Nevada Faculty Alliance is the independent statewide association of professional employees of the colleges and universities of the Nevada System of Higher Education. The NFA is affiliated with the American Association of University Professors, which advocates for academic freedom, shared governance, and faculty rights, and the American Federation of Teachers/AFL-CIO, representing over 300,000 higher education professionals nationwide. The NFA works to empower our members to be wholly engaged in our mission to help students succeed.

Contact: Kent Ervin, NFA State President, kent.ervin@nevadafacultyalliance.org, 775-453-6837

Today was a great hearing for AB224, our bill to secure collective bargaining rights for NSHE professionals!  Thanks so much to our members who testified or submitted written comments, to the AAUP and AFT for providing great expert testimony, and to our many labor partners including the Nevada AFL-CIO who lined up in support!

AAUP statement in support

AFT legal analysis of the bill

NFA fact sheet

The support was overwhelming and the bill was very well received.  Just one hiccup--more than six months after we provided NSHE with the bill language and after multiple outreach attempts to them with no response, late yesterday NSHE submitted a claim that the bill is unconstitutional. That position was, however, eviscerated at the hearing by Kevin Powers, a senior attorney for the Legislative Counsel Bureau.  Listen to the hearing here. Hearing starts at 9:52:30, Kevin Powers at 10:08:58.

We now expect the bill to move forward through the legislative process.

The Nevada Faculty Alliance conducted confidential surveys of academic and non-managerial administrative faculty at the seven NSHE colleges and universities between November 2022 and February 2023. 

The detailed aggregate and institutional results are linked below:

• Summary Results - All Institutions and Comparisons
• College of Southern Nevada
• Great Basin College
• Nevada State College
• Truckee Meadows Community College
• University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• University of Nevada, Reno
• Western Nevada College

Key highlights from the surveys include the following:

• Faculty are most concerned about low salaries, with 64% of respondents reporting moderate or strong dissatisfaction with their overall compensation and 71% feeling that their compensation compares unfavorably with others in their field at their stage of career.

• About half of the respondents expressed dissatisfaction with health care benefits. After improving compensation and lowering PEBP premiums, their highest priority is the restoration of PEBP benefits including Long-Term Disability Insurance.

• A strong majority of respondents (79%) are satisfied with retirement benefits, the one bright spot in overall compensation.

• Faculty respondents generally report being comfortable with the climate within their own departments or programs (72% overall), suggesting good working relationships with close colleagues. However, there is variability across the seven institutions in how comfortable faculty are with their overall campus climate--67% overall are moderately or strongly comfortable with their campus climate but at two institutions about half of the faculty members report being moderately or strongly uncomfortable.

• Faculty members who report they are more comfortable with the campus climate tend to be at institutions whose administrators are perceived to embrace the principles of shared governance and protect academic freedom.  Conversely, institutions rated low in campus climates are correlated with dissatisfaction in those areas.

• Over half of the faculty respondents have seriously considered leaving their institution in the past two years, with low salaries being the most common reason followed by limited advancement opportunities. Contributing reasons include a lack of a sense of belonging, the high cost of living and housing, and a lack of institutional support. Faculty at institutions that rate low on campus climate overall list the climate and tensions with administrators among reasons to consider leaving.

• Finally, at the four institutions without faculty collective bargaining units (GBC, NSC, UNLV & UNR), a supermajority of 83% of respondents moderately or strongly support formation of a bargaining unit to negotiate for improved compensation, benefits, and working conditions.

The survey responses will inform our advocacy efforts at the legislature for higher COLAs, for full restoration of benefits, and for our bill to secure collective bargaining rights in state law.

Our short faculty survey is strongly indicative of differences in campus climate among the seven institutions, but does not eliminate the need for comprehensive campus climate studies and 360° evaluations of administrators, which should be conducted by external consultants as part of the periodic presidential reviews by the Regents. Such studies could delve into the specific groups of faculty who feel the campus climate is unwelcoming or uncomfortable and why.

We would like to thank everyone who responded to the survey and provided written comments. Your input is incredibly valuable to us, and we have read and considered all of the comments.  As always, we remain committed to working in solidarity with members of our faculty alliance to ensure that our voices are heard and our needs are met.

Assembly Bill 224 will secure collective bargaining rights for NSHE professional employees in state law.  AB 224 was introduced on February 23 with a bipartisan group of thirty cosponsors!

AB224 Collective Bargaining Bill Summary 

AB224 on NELIS (Legislative Bill Tracking Site)

To help support AB224 and other NFA legislative priorities, please sign up for the NFA Legislative Action Team.

Public Comment, Joint Senate Finance and Assembly Ways & Means Committees, 2/21/2023

by Kent Ervin, State President, Nevada Faculty Alliance

Re: Nevada System of Higher Education Budget

The Nevada Faculty Alliance is the independent statewide association of professional employees at NSHE. Along with our national partners, the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers, we work to advance higher education for the common good.

Higher education fosters a responsible citizenry, promotes upward social and economic mobility, and trains the workforce for Nevada’s economic advancement. Our public colleges and universities are the talent pathway for workforce development. That includes not only career and technical training for trades, but also the professional workforce education for Nevada’s future—teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers, scientists, accountants, managers, policy-makers, journalists, writers, and so forth.

There has been a long-term trend, both nationally and in Nevada, of lower state support for public higher education and higher student fees and tuition.  Between FY2007 and FY2022 in Nevada, state-appropriated funding per student FTE (full-time-equivalent) declined by 34% after inflation (including the federal ARPA funds used to restore positions in FY2022 ).  During the same period, resident student fees per student FTE increased 65% above inflation. (Please see the chart of state and student revenues per student FTE on page 2.)  The contribution to the total cost from the state per student has declined from about two-thirds to one-half.

The Governor’s recommended budget brings NSHE’s state-appropriated base budget back to FY2019 levels, which bakes in those long-term declines.  It restores the 12% cuts to operating budgets in the current biennium. The additional funding for graduate teaching assistantships is important—their current stipends are below subsistence levels.  We also appreciate the one-time funding to cover pandemic-related enrollment declines at CSN, GBC, and TMCC.  However, we have to point out that the operating budget does not address the high inflation over the past two years, so we will still be stretching to do more with less. 

We are encouraged that the Governor has proposed a study of the funding formula. With a $5M price tag, the study should not only study the costs of providing courses, but also the support that today’s students need and the resources required to provide higher education for the common good and Nevada’s economic future.

Thank you.

On an inflation-adjusted basis, state-appropriated funding per full-time-equivalent (FTE) student fell by 34% from FY2007 to FY2022, while resident registration fees rose 65% above inflation. Revenues per student FTE from non-resident tuition and self-supported program fees were about flat over the same period after inflation.

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The Nevada Faculty Alliance is the statewide independent association of professional employees at the colleges and universities of the Nevada System of Higher Education. The NFA is affiliated with the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers/AFL-CIO, which represent over 300,000 higher education professionals in North America. The NFA advocates for higher education as a common good, academic freedom, and improving the working conditions of NSHE professional employees.

Contact: Kent Ervin, NFA State President, kent.ervin@nevadafacultyalliance.org, 775-453-6837

Public Comment, Joint Senate Finance and Assembly Ways & Means Committees, 2/17/2023

by Kent Ervin, State President, Nevada Faculty Alliance

Re: Public Employees’ Benefits Program Budget

The Nevada Faculty Alliance is the independent statewide association of professional employees at Nevada’s public colleges and universities. We work to empower our members to be fully engaged in our mission to help students succeed.

To be fully engaged, state employees need robust health care benefits to keep healthy and productive The Public Employees’ Benefits Program is essential for recruiting and retaining state employees. While uncompetitive salaries are the most pressing concern of our members, benefits are next.

PEBP benefits were drastically cut after the Great Recession. We slowly clawed some of them back just to have benefits cut again during the pandemic. Now that the state’s economy and revenues are roaring back, the benefits should be fully restored to pre-pandemic FY2020 levels:

• Restore Long-Term Disability Insurance, which was completely eliminated.
• Restore basic Life Insurance, which was cut by 40%.
• Restore pre-pandemic deductibles, copays, and out-of-pocket maximums.
• Restore pre-pandemic employee premiums, which were raised by 50%.

We also support raising the Medicare retiree contributions to Health Reimbursement Accounts to cover Medigap insurance inflation, as proposed by AFSCME Retirees and RPEN.

Longer term, state funding of the employee health insurance plan has not kept up.  As shown in the chart on the next page, the total rate for the basic high-deductible plan for state employees (single-employee tier) has increased only 8% over the dozen years from FY2011 to FY2023, while average per-capita health care costs have risen 69%.  Only about 66% of the average cost of health care for an individual is now covered by the PEBP premium. Although PEPB has instituted some cost-saving efficiencies, largely the additional burden is falling as higher out-of-pocket medical and prescription expenses on the employees who are most vulnerable—employees who have chronic conditions and need treatment to remain productive on the job, employees who suffer a major health crisis in a year, and employees who become total disabled because of an injury or diagnoses but now have no income safety net after the elimination of Long-Term Disability Insurance.

Thank you.

Before 2014, the PEBP plan premium matched the average per capita cost of health care, but now it only covers about 66%.  State employees are paying higher out-of-pocket medical and prescription costs.

Source: PEBP annual rate tables, CMS National Health Expenditures Tables, AON 2023 Global Medical Trends Report.

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The Nevada Faculty Alliance is the statewide independent association of professional employees at the colleges and universities of the Nevada System of Higher Education. The NFA is affiliated with the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers/AFL-CIO, which represent over 300,000 higher education professionals in North America. The NFA advocates for higher education as a common good, academic freedom, and improving the working conditions of NSHE professional employees.

Contact: Kent Ervin, NFA State President, kent.ervin@nevadafacultyalliance.org, 775-453-6837

Public Comment, Joint Senate Finance and Assembly Ways & Means Committees, 2/13/2023

by Kent Ervin, NFA State President

The Nevada Faculty Alliance is the independent statewide association of professional employees at Nevada’s public colleges and universities. We work to empower our members to be fully engaged in our mission to help students succeed.

All of our classified colleagues at NSHE and about 15% of faculty are members of PERS. Faculty on NSHE’s retirement plan alternative receive the same contribution amounts as PERS per statute. The retirement plan is essential for recruiting and retaining state employees.

Nevada PERS has one of the strongest investment programs in the country.  Using a disciplined approach with low-cost investments and a lean investment staff, PERS has exceeded its investment goals and market benchmarks over the long term.  

Nevada PERS’s unfunded liability percentage is about in the middle among the 50 states. In 2021, PERS’s actuaries took a deep dive into the assumptions and changed them to be more fiscally conservative. That was the responsible thing to do but it is the primary reason that the PERS contribution rate is going up next year.  This will put PERS on a firmer footing over the next decades.  But like getting a shorter-term mortgage and increasing monthly payments, it increases the pain now to pay off the debt faster. Fortunately, this increase is happening at a time when the state budget can absorb the increase.

With uncompetitive salaries and cuts to health care benefits, the retirement program is the one positive left for state employees, but the retirement contributions have become a further drag on state employee salaries.  The State should cover more of the PERS contribution for its employees, as do many of the local governmental employers. Thank you, Chair Monroe-Moreno, for asking for options.

Finally, we support PERS’s budget enhancement requests to keep the retirement system functioning well.