CSU faculty OKs contract -- 24% raises

San Francisco Chronicle 5/8/07

By Jill Tucker

Faculty members at San Francisco State University and the 22 other campuses of the California State University system have voted overwhelmingly to approve a four-year labor contract, union officials announced Monday.

The agreement, if approved later this month by the CSU Board of Trustees, would increase salaries by more than 24 percent over the life of the deal.

Of the members voting over three days last week, 97 percent supported the tentative contract, California Faculty Association President John Travis said.

"Were happy with it," he said.

While the Board of Trustees still has to vote on the agreement, the settlement is likely to end what has been the most contentious faculty contract negotiations the CSU system has seen.

The 23,000-member union authorized a strike last month after nearly two years of negotiations. A rolling walkout was averted last week after university officials agreed to follow a fact finder's report, Travis said.

The agreement includes a 3.5 percent faculty raise last year and another 20.7 percent over the next three years. The average professor's salary will increase to more than $90,000 at the end of the contract, up from about $73,000 now.

"I think that was one of the most positive things and why people were satisfied with the contract," Travis said. "We're going to catch up a little, I think."

Travis said the agreement includes better job security for the university's temporary lecturers.

Online resources

To read the tentative agreement, go to calfac.org/contract.html.