Strike averted at CSU schools
L.A. Daily News 4/4/07
The 200-page agreement is widely expected to be ratified by the faculties at the 23 California State University campuses.
"We have a tentative agreement that will be good for the CSU, good for our students, good for the faculty and, frankly, it will be good for California," John Travis, president of the California Faculty Association, said in a statement.
Last month, most of the union's 23,000 members authorized a strike over stalled contract negotiations. At the same time, CSU trustees voted to raise student fees by 10 percent and to grant a 4 percent pay raise to about two dozen top administrators.
"This is good news for everybody, including our 417,000 students, and we look forward to moving ahead with getting our faculty their salary increases," said Roberta Achtenberg, who chairs the CSU board.
Union officials said trustees realized the wage increases were needed to retain faculty, especially in cities like Los Angeles where the cost of living is high.
"It's not that they were forced to this. They are doing the right thing," said James David Ballard, the president of the CFA chapter at California State University, Northridge.
"If you look at where they were before now, it's an enormous shift of resources, a difference of $80 million to $100 million."
The agreement, which was reached after an impartial fact-finder released recommendations, could cost the CSU system more than $400 million over four years.
In addition to the 20.7 percent in salary increases, the agreement also includes a 1 percent step increase for each year of the contract; $28 million for merit pay for junior and senior faculty; and an additional 1 percent in each of the last three years of the contract, contingent on receiving more money from the state.
The four-year contract will raise the average salary for a tenure-track faculty member from $74,000 to $90,749 and the average salary for a full-time tenured professor from $86,000 to $105,465, officials said.
The union now will work on stopping the rise in student fees, and create new policies for compensating CSU executives as well as accountability and openness in how the CSU is managed.
The Board of Trustees has said tuition fee hikes were needed because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed state budget for the system assumes $123 million in fee revenue, based on a 10 percent increase in student fees and a 2.5 percent enrollment increase.
"I am very pleased to see that both sides came together and put students' needs first by preventing a faculty strike," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "This agreement benefits students, faculty and administrators and will continue to improve the excellence of the CSU system."