Strikes averted at CSU

Salinas Californian 4/4/07

By Robert Salonga

Two years of contract negotiations, the California State University system has reached a tentative agreement with its faculty union, halting for now a wave of teacher strikes planned for this month.

The news means that Seaside-based California State University, Monterey Bay, likely will be spared the type of faculty walkout that last fall crippled Hartnell College in Salinas.

The agreement brought a sense of relief to faculty, who had prepared for a possible strike as a last resort.

"We are in the business of teaching, and that's where we should be dedicating all of our time," said Rafael Gomez, a professor of Spanish at CSUMB and California Faculty Association chapter president.

Rolling strikes among the 23 CSU campuses by members of the CFA were scheduled to begin April 10 if bargaining talks did not produce an agreement. The union represents about half of the system's 22,500 faculty.

"We believe it's a win for the CSU, particularly for our students," said John Travis, system-wide CFA president and a political science professor at California State University, Humboldt.

The contract terms bring CSU faculty significantly closer to the average salary of their peers in comparable institutions, union leaders said. That includes a base pay increase of 20.7 percent. With step increases based on experience and tenure, the package is worth close to 25 percent over four years.

CSU officials said the average salary of a tenure-track faculty member will jump from $74,000 to $90,749, while average pay for a full-time, tenured professor will increase from $86,000 to $105,465.

An additional $28 million will be set aside for merit-based and equity pay, and instructors could receive a 1 percent boost in each of the final three years of the contract if state funding allows it.

CSUMB's Gomez said the 23 months of negotiations, picketing and organizing has strengthened the faculty union considerably.

"The negotiations have empowered us," he said, adding that stemming the rise in student fees - which have nearly doubled over the last four years - will be the union's next undertaking.

Instructors have been working under a contract that expired in 2005. At issue were terms for a new contract through 2010.

"This agreement strikes a realistic balance between providing deserved raises to our faculty and our limited financial resources," CSU Chancellor Charles Reed said in a statement. "The recommendations of the neutral fact-finder provided a roadmap to settle both economic and non-economic issues."