It might be too early to start the victory celebration over the tentative contract between the California Faculty Association and the California State University administration, Cal State Long Beach’s faculty union leader warned.
“We’re still a little bit away from having a signed contract,” Lydia Sondhi, CSULB’s CFA chapter president, told the Academic Senate Thursday. “It’s in the process of being written as we speak, but there is still some difficult language to be ironed out.”
Ironically, Sondhi’s caution to the Senate contradicted new Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Karen Gould’s optimism for ending the nearly two-year long stalemate.
Speaking immediately prior to Sondhi, Gould told the Senate, “I am very pleased that the contract issue has been resolved, averting a work action.” Gould gave the impromptu address in place of CSULB President F. King Alexander’s Senate report, explaining Alexander was not at the meeting due to another commitment.
Gould congratulated faculty and thanked the Senate for its congeniality and professionalism during the lengthy, and at times contentious, negotiations that still could produce the proposed two-day rolling walkouts at the CSU’s 23 universities.
“Assuming the new contract is put in place, I am certainly delighted to see we are working in the right direction to the benefit of the entire CSU community,” Gould said after the meeting.
Jennifer Costanzo, a marketing major, said the contract falls short of a fair deal. “I feel they’re [CSU] shorting the entire college community by not giving the teachers their just due,” Costanzo said, adding that her family member works at another CSU. “They should be paid more.”
The union voted in March to stage walkouts – originally slated to begin last week – at six of the system’s universities by issuing an April 6 deadline for CSU to meet the demands. The CSU Chancellor’s Office and the CFA each issued press releases on April 3 announcing an end to the impasse, pending acceptance of the provisional agreement.
Sondhi said open faculty forums will be conducted on the Long Beach campus tomorrow and Wednesday to provide details of the pending contract, as well as to get input from faculty members. Sondhi said CFA chapters throughout the state will also hold faculty forums.
“Five bargaining team members will be there [at the CSULB faculty forums],” said Sondhi. “Because Long Beach will be the first, this also will be a sort of training ground.”
The CFA will vote May 1 through 3 on whether or not to accept the contract and, if ratified, “will then be submitted to the CSU Board of Trustees for approval,” according the press release from the Chancellor’s Office.
Long Beach was not one of the initial six campuses targeted for the work stoppage, according to a strike schedule issued by the CFA on March 29. CSUs on the schedule included Cal State Los Angeles, Dominguez Hills, East Bay, Sacramento, San Marcos and the California Maritime Academy in Vallejo.
Sondhi also asked the Senate to write a resolution prodding CSU to use existing discretionary funds to help absorb costs for implementing the contract. She gave a presentation of an in-progress systemwide budget analysis the union commissioned “to find out where the money is coming from.”
The report stated, “CSU management has access to significant ‘discretionary’ or ‘off-budget’ cash flows … and these cash flow ‘surpluses’ obviously provide management with important financial flexibility.”
The incomplete report, “California State University Off-Budget Cash Flows,” claims that after the CSU completes its financial activities it still has a “positive $385 million in ‘free cash flow’ and $390 million in ‘net operating cash flow.'” The report comes before the pending 10 percent fee increase CSU students will face in the fall.
The total pay package for the tentative agreement would cost the CSU more than $400 million over the life of the four-year deal if accepted, according to the CSU press release.
Sondhi said the analysis shows that “the CSU has had a positive cash flow each of the last five years.” Sondhi said several of the CSUs could be devastated without financial help from other areas.
The first of the open faculty forums will be tomorrow from 4 to6 p.m. in the Chart Room. Wednesday’s meeting, also in the Chart Room, will be from noon to 2 p.m. The CFA contract ratification vote will be in the University Student Union Floor 2 Plaza Lobby.
