Collective bargaining is the foundation that organized labor is built on. 

Truly, it’s at the heart of what unions are and what unions do for their members. 

When UUP negotiates a contract for its members, our union has a equal hand in determining terms of employment—including compensation, job protections, benefits, work hours and more—with our employer, the state of New York. 

Over the years, UUP has achieved many gains through collective bargaining, from securing health care benefits and per-course minimum pay for part-time employees to annual across-the-board salary increases for our members and everyone we represent in our bargaining unit. 

In our current contract, which expires July 1, we negotiated to have New York’s Paid Parental Leave—up to 12 weeks of guaranteed, fully paid leave following the birth, adoption or foster placement of a child—added to our agreement with the state. We also established 7-year and 12-year retention awards based on an employee’s length of service—a UUP goal for decades. 

We also maintained our health benefits package with no increases in copays or employee share of premiums. 

These gains were not easily gotten. They never are. 

In this episode of The Voice Podcast, host Fred Kowal--who's also UUP's statewide president--talks to three people who were at the table to negotiate UUP's last three contracts with the state of New York. 

They are: 

• Former statewide Vice President for Academics Jamie Dangler, chief negotiator for our 2011-2016 contract, easily one of UUP’s most difficult contracts to negotiate.  
• Elizabeth Hough, UUP’s former counsel to the president, who was at the table for two UUP contracts, the 2016-2022 agreement and the union's current 2022-2026 contract, which expires July 1. 
• UUP Chief Negotiator Bret Benjamin served on UUP's Negotiations Team for the 2016-22 agreement and was chief negotiator for our current contract. He's also chief negotiator for a new contract we’re negotiating with the state. 

In Labor Lookback, Mike Lisi explores the impact President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration had on workers and the entire country during the Great Depression. He also looks at the life of folk icon Pete Seeger, a longtime union supporter. 

Kowal discusses the brings home the importance of collective bargaining to unions in Kowal's Coda. 

Music used in this podcast: 

"It's Got to be Love" - Henry King & His Orchestra with vocal by Joseph Sudy 

 "Solidarity Forever" - Pete Seeger