California State U. and Faculty Union Reach Tentative Pact, Averting Strike

Chronicle of Higher Education 4/4/07

By John Gravois

The California State University system has reached a tentative agreement on the terms of a four-year contract with its faculty union, thus averting what might have been the largest job action in higher-education history.

The tentative agreement stands to end a nearly two-year-long standoff between the university system and the California Faculty Association, a union that represents the system's 24,000 professors, instructors, librarians, counselors, and coaches.

At the height of the conflict last month, the union voted overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing a series of "rolling walkouts" that would have sent professors in the 23-campus system to picket lines for two days at a time, campus by campus (The Chronicle, March 22).

John Travis, president of the union, said in a conference call with reporters that union leaders had put the rolling walkouts "on hold."

Union leaders said that the agreement, which still needs to be rendered into contract language and ratified by the union's members and the system's Board of Trustees, hews closely to the recommendations in a report by an independent fact finder that was released late last month (The Chronicle, March 26).

The state system and the union agreed that everyone in the bargaining unit should be provided with a 20.7-percent general salary increase over the four-year period of the contract, plus step raises for faculty members who are eligible for them. According to the administration, that amounts to a 24.87-percent aggregate increase over the four years. In addition, the two sides agreed to set aside $28-million for merit and equity raises.

"I think we pretty much got what we've been fighting for," said Mr. Travis. "We didn't get everything we wanted, but we got close to everything we wanted."

In a statement, Charles B. Reed, the system's chancellor, said, "This agreement strikes a realistic balance between providing deserved raises to our faculty and our limited financial resources."