Non-tenure track lecturers, who teach a good share of the University of California's undergraduate classes, recently won more job security and better pay.

Last fall, the lecturers held a one-day strike at UC Berkeley and other campuses to protest what has become a common situation in higher education: lecturers teaching more classes than tenured professors for a lower salary, little job security and almost no prestige.

The new contract is one of the best deals for lecturers in the nation, said Kevin Roddy, a UC Davis lecturer and president of the University Council-American Federation of Teachers.

"This is the first contract that we've seen that accepts us as professionals," he said. "We've always argued that treating us like professionals and permanent members of the university community would be good for the students."

One of the biggest victories was more job security for lecturers who hit the six-year mark and became "post six." No longer will they have to go through a review every three years to see if they get to keep their jobs.

By 2005, the starting salaries for lecturers will increase $10,000 to $37,000. Post-six lecturers will make a minimum of $40,200.

Last year, pre-six lecturers in the UC system made on average $43,081, according to the university. Post-six lecturers made $51,183. Comparatively, tenure-track assistant professors earned an average of $63,718 and tenured professors made $109,214.

UC will establish a professional development fund for lecturers for expenses such as travel to conferences. And lecturers now have the option of involving a neutral arbitrator in dispute resolution.

The union says there are 2,900 lecturers systemwide, representing 33 percent of UC faculty.

The new contract must be ratified by the union. It is one in a raft of protracted contract negotiations that UC has brought to a close recently. In May, the university ratified a contract with clerical employees in the Coalition of University Employees. And it reached a tentative agreement with the University Professional and Technical Employees union on two new labor contracts.

Roddy says the university wanted to clear the decks of contentious negotiations to avoid any potential for more strikes as UC struggles with budget cutbacks.

The university has a different take on it.

"I think the timing of the agreement had more to do with the union realizing that the budgetary constraints were real and that formal impasse was the likely alternative to voluntary settlement," said UC spokesman Paul Schwartz in an e-mail.