Florida A&M University and its union workers are at an impasse over their collective bargaining agreement. Monday morning both sides met with Special Magistrate Adrienne Trott to express their concerns.
The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees is a union group for state county and city workers. FAMU Campus representative Andre Crumity believes the state should take better care of its workers. Those include custodial, grounds keeping, and data entry employees. He says many work two jobs just to be able to afford a living wage.
“We’re the ones that are really keeping the university afloat so I think it’s more than fair that you know we take care of our employees,” said Crumity.
The university argues they don’t have the funds. FAMU Attorney Robert Larkin says the school offered the group a bonus but they didn’t want to accept it.
“They were unwilling to accept a non-recurring wage increase, a bonus or one-time money. They would not entertain that. And as you’re seeing in the meeting we don’t have that funding,” said Larkin.
Crumity says they want the University to give each employee a base salary increase of 2500 dollars. The special magistrate says she will make a decision at a later date.
