The California Faculty Association (CFA) and the California State University (CSU) administration on Tuesday reached a tentative contract that settled negotiations and put strikes on hold until the contract is fully ratified.
The tentative agreement reported a 20.7 percent salary increase over a four-year period for faculty members, including that “in the next four months, everyone will get a 7.7 percent raise – with 3 percent retroactive to July 1, 2006.”
Alice Sunshine, CFA communications director, said the contract was very close to the recommendations made by the nonpartisan fact-finding report. She said that those doing the bargaining have been communicating with faculty members to make sure the agreement is good.
If the CFA and CSU had not reached an agreement by April 6, campuses were prepared to strike starting next week.
Claudia Keith of CSU Public Affairs and Sunshine both said they are not expecting student fee increases. Keith said the CSU is receiving funds from the government to help cover the cost of the raises, and Sunshine said a fee increase is completely unnecessary. Fees have not been historically used to pay faculty members; the idea of student fee increases to cover faculty payroll is a new concept.
Keith said members of the union have to ratify the contract, and then the CSU Board of Trustees will do the same. She said she expects the contract to be finalized in early May.
CFA members will be able to vote to ratify the contract. According to Sunshine, the voting could take place during the last week of April or the first week of May. She said the voting could also last two weeks in order to allow everyone to cast a vote.
“We think the faculty will support it,” Sunshine said.
