The Cal State University Board of Trustees have extended a tentative bargaining agreement with the California Faculty Association to incrementally raise faculty pay over the next two years.
Michael Uhlenkamp, interim senior director of public affairs for the CSU system, explained that the bargaining agreement reached on Tuesday Sept. 26 will be extended to include a 3.5 percent pay increase in 2018, and another 2.5 percent in 2019.
Uhlenkamp explained that faculty pay in general is divided up in a pool system; in which the total pay is taken into account, raised by a percent and then distributed by the union back to the faculty.
Douglas Foraste, president of the CFA Long Beach Chapter, explained via email that this proposal was initially put forward by the CFA to preserve labor peace. The preservation of benefits and pensions were just as important to the CFA as an increase in pay.
“Those were big wins for us,” Foraste said. “The salary increases were good, but preserving our benefits and pension contributions for two more years is probably the biggest selling point for me.”
He elaborated that along with this they were able to preserve several important programs that would include research and publishing agendas, along with the faculty early retirement program.
The extra two years will also allow them to pursue other issues such as intellectual property for professors.