Faculty Pickets Over Contract
Long Beach Gazette 2//8/07
LaTrice Dixon, a CFA event organizer, led protesters marching around campus and chanting phrases such as “Hey, hey, what do you say? Give us a contract right away!” and “When education is under attack, what do you do? Fight back!”
Similar protests at CSU campuses statewide were triggered last month after the university system’s Board of Trustees approved a 4% salary increase (retroactive to July ’06) for the 23 campus presidents, Chancellor Charles Reed and four of his top aides. With the raise, presidents’ salaries will now range between $228,000 and $298,000, and Reed will earn $377,000, according to Clara Potes-Fellow, the director of media relations for CSU.
“It looks like a nice salary, but it’s actually low compared to other presidential salaries throughout the United States,” Potes-Fellow said.
She explained that the salary increase was necessary to keep presidential salaries competitive with those of similar universities across the country and help draw the best administrators.
“Every time there’s a new president, there’s a problem with salaries,” Potes-Fellow said. “It’s pretty hard to offer them a position and get them to accept it if there’s not a competitive salary tied to the position É They are the image of the university, we don’t want anyone mediocre.”
Meanwhile, leaders of the CFA — which represents 23,000 faculty members and has been trying to negotiate new contracts with CSU for almost two years — have accused the school system of having misplaced priorities.
“One word to describe it is scandalous,” said Lydia Sondhi, president of the Long Beach CFA chapter. “The reality of it is we’ve been fighting desperately for a new contract in light of a very apparent faculty need. The timing (of the salary increase) was very insensitive.”
Sondhi said that in the past 20 months, both parties have settled more than 30 contract items, that is, non-economic items. Negotiations have stalled on issues of faculty salaries and workload, she added.
CSU officials pointed out they already made an “excellent compensation offer” to the faculty union, who then rejected it. The offer includes a 24.5% salary increase (retroactive to July ’06) over the next four years, as well as CSU payment of 100% of the increase in medical insurance premiums during that time.
The 4% increase for 2006-07 would bring the average salary of a part-time lecturer to $45,668; of tenured and probationary faculty to $77,108; and of a full professor to $89,551, according to CSU officials.
But CFA leaders argue the contract offer is too vague. For example, under the new contract, 1% of the salary increase would be used to fund an undefined merit program at the discretion of administrators, Sondhi said. She added that the CFA recently won millions of dollars in a settlement regarding merit program issues from the 1998-2001 contract.
Sondhi explained that the contract also would force faculty members to deduct SSIs (step increases that reward experience over a person’s career) from GSIs (cost of living increases) — this would pit senior faculty against junior faculty. In the end, after all deductions, the contract offer would give most faculty an increase of under 15% over the next four years, she said.
“Again and again, the CFA bargaining team has said, ‘If what is really being offered is 24%, we’ll take it’,” Sondhi said.
Also adding to the debate over the CSU trustees’ decision-making is an upcoming vote on a possible 10% student fee hike for fall 2007. As part of a compact Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made with various higher education institutions, CSU schools agreed to predictable student fee increases (never more than 10% at once). The trustees are scheduled to vote on the hike at their March meeting.
“Regardless of any fee increases in the past,” CSU officials said in a prepared statement, “the CSU fees are among the lowest in the nation. The average fee among universities comparable to the CSU is $6,700 a year. CSU students attending school full-time pay on average only $3,200 per year.”
Sondhi told faculty, staff and students at the protest that the CFA board of directors will decide this weekend whether or not to bring forward a strike vote to faculty members. According to CFA Board President John Travis, faculty members have never held a system-wide strike before.
“This gives visibility to the issues and our problems,” Sondhi said of Tuesday’s picket. “We want to let the chancellor know there is an angry faculty that wants to go back to the negotiation table.”