After two years of bargaining and the threat of a systemwide faculty strike, the California State University system reached a tentative agreement with the faculty union late last month. The California Faculty Association represents more than 23,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches throughout the CSU system. If the contract is ratified, it will run until the end of June 2014 and would include such provisions as a systemwide online evaluation process and a campus-based equity program that targets specific faculty classifications.Before it can go into effect, the contract must be ratified by both the faculty association and the CSU Board of Trustees, which both parties hope to complete at the September trustees meeting.
Challenging negotiations during the last two years have spurred strikes and several unsuccessful bargaining sessions. Both California campuses CSU East Bay and CSU Dominguez Hills held one day strikes last November to protest what they believed were unfair requests from the CSU. Last spring, after a mediator was unable to break the deadlock in negotiations, CFA voted on whether to strike if mediation and fact-finding did not reach a settlement. However, last month the two sides came to an agreement and a system-wide strike never occurred. “In this extremely challenging budget climate, we are pleased to come to an agreement with the CFA that will allow both parties to move forward and focus on the state’s reinvestment in higher education,” CSU Associate Vice Chancellor for Labor Relations John Swarbrick said.
Representatives from the CFA said the agreement is the best possible outcome, given the tough financial situation the university has endured within the last several years.
“The CSU faculty persisted at the bargaining table and in public action to assert that a fair contract is fundamental to a quality system of public higher education,” its statement reads. “Faculty members at every campus realized the terms of this contract would affect not only what happens to us but also to our students, to our co-workers and to the people of California who rely on the CSU.”
One highlight of the agreement is that salaries and benefits will be maintained for union members. The agreement calls for no salary increases for 2010-11 and 2011-12, but provides opportunities to reopen negotiations for the following two years, depending on state funding to the CSU. The CFA referred to most terms as “modest gains,” and focused on having contested more severe proposals from the CSU.
“We know that other public employee unions are taking pay cuts, losing benefits and enduring many other painful losses,” the CFA statement reads. “While this agreement doesn’t solve everything that we believe is needed, we did fight off management’s attempt to impose pay and benefit cuts during the contract.”
The CFA also stated that it gained a number of improvements to the faculty contract. For example, a joint union-administration committee will track and study the impacts of changes in workload and faculty will have greater flexibility in scheduling parental leave.
A joint statement issued by the CSU and the faculty association stated that moving forward, a concern for both parties, should be securing state funding for the CSU system in the November election. The statement claims the parties are hopeful that this agreement will allow the CSU community to shift its attention to critical matters related to increasing revenue to the state and to the CSU.
