CSU contract extension OK'd
Ventura Star 3/26/07
Both sides favored extending the contract for 10 more days in hopes of reaching a settlement, apparently halting until April 6 the notion of a teacher walkout in the nation's largest four-year public university system.
Both the California Faculty Association and CSU administration officials said they will begin working toward a settlement today.
"We mutually agree that we should seek a settlement," Charles Reed, chancellor of the CSU system, said Sunday.
The union and CSU administrators have been in negotiations for 22 months over a proposed collective bargaining agreement, but have been split over the issue of salary. Last week, eligible CSU faculty voted to authorize a strike in April if no agreement is reached. It calls for rolling two-day walkouts in the 23-campus system.
The union is seeking a 25.7 percent increase. CSU officials say they have offered a 25 percent increase over the next three years, but union officials contend that the raise would actually be about 15 percent because of various contingencies.
On average CSU faculty salaries lag their peers' by 18 percent, a state study shows. Salaries for new tenure-track faculty average $61,087 in the CSU system. Those at CSU Channel Islands near Camarillo average the highest pay in the system, $76,252, but union leaders there have said they would support a strike.
Lillian Vega Castaneda, a professor at CSU Channel Islands, said in a telephone interview Sunday that she was "happy" and "ecstatic" with news that both sides would be working toward an agreement.
"Sometimes in order to bring attention to these issues, you have to do things that are uncomfortable," Castaneda said, adding that she would not want to strike but would if she had to. "If we can come to agreement on this, it will serve all parties ? very well. Of course, let's see what happens in 10 days."
On Sunday, an arbitrator's nonbinding recommendations were released. The arbitrator recommended a nearly 25 percent increase in pay.
Alice Sunshine, spokeswoman for the faculty union, said the organization will still prepare for a strike in case a settlement is not reached.
In a teleconference Sunday, both sides said they were willing to work within the framework of an independent fact-finder's report on the dispute.
"The fact-finder kind of divided the world in half for both groups," giving the union and administration some of the what they wanted, Reed said.
John Travis, president of the nearly 11,000-member faculty association, said he believed that there were concessions that the union had already made. But he added he was willing to work toward a settlement.
In comments attached to the fact-finder's report, CSU Vice Chancellor Jackie McClain wrote that the recommended salary increase goes beyond the "fiscal priority of the university."
"We have no idea whether the recommendations can be funded within the money available," McClain wrote.
The union has about 23,000 members. Of the 8,129 who voted, 94 percent were in favor of a strike.