The California State University Chancellor’s Office and the California Faculty Association have come to a tentative agreement for a new multi-year union contract.
On Monday, the California Faculty Association unanimously recommended to vote “yes” on the recently negotiated agreement with CSU administrators.
“We’re glad to be at this point where we have a tentative agreement.” said Charles Turner, Chico State’s union president. “We all feel like its certainly not a perfect agreement but its definitely a move in the right direction.”
The contract adds a three percent increase to the salary pool of all CSU faculty for the 2014-15 academic year. From that pool, 1.6 percent will go to increase the salaries for the 25,000 instructional faculty, counselors, coaches and librarians on all 23 CSU campuses.
The remaining 1.4 percent will go to reduce individual issues on a per-campus basis, said Mike Uhlenkamp, spokesman for the Chancellor’s office.
“The multi-year agreement is a tremendous accomplishment, as well as a special opportunity for CFA and the CSU to continue to strengthen communication and collaboration as we work together to advance the mission of the university,” said Chancellor Timothy P. White in a statement.
Workload compensation is also addressed in the contract. The contract adds a $1.3 million pool to pay faculty for providing instruction outside of their teaching duties. In addition, it includes a $2.7 million pool to ease workload, such as adding more class sections and reducing class size.
“This contract will benefit students and faculty,” said Lillian Taiz, president of CFA and a history professor at Cal State LA. “This contract is a small step forward toward fixing a broken salary structure that both sides recognize is not good for the CSU.”
Both the California Faculty Association and the CSU Board of Trustees need to approve the contract before it takes effect.
Faculty have worked without a contract since June 30. If the contract is approved, it will take effect immediately and remain effective through June 2017.
David McVicker can be reached at [email protected] or @DavidPMcVicker on Twitter.
