I just heard on NPR that the California State University system faculty has agreed to a deal with the administration. Here are the opening paragraphs from the “Inside Bay Area” web site, which is put out by the Oakland Tribune:
The union representing 24,000 California State University faculty members has agreed to a tentative contract that would hike professors’ pay nearly 25 percent over four years and avert a strike at the 417,000-student system.The agreement, announced Tuesday, must be ratified by union members and the Cal State Board of Trustees. The breakthrough came after two years of negotiations and just days before two-day walkouts were to begin on the system’s 23 campuses.
A strike would have been the largest in U.S. higher-education history. Faculty leaders said they would stall strike plans while the contract was being finalized.
Let’s hope that we get to something similar….
The CalState Chancellor is quoted in the piece you link to, Steve, saying that the proposed settlement is “fair” — and it’s a settlement that was devised largely by a fact finder.
What a contrast, that Chancellor’s comments, versus those of our own President, who urges his side to “be available” to negotiate!
Also – the CalState agreement calls for something like a 25% raise in faculty pay over 4 years. Good for them! But there is no chance, Steve, despite your hopes, that we at EMU will “get to something similar”, unless you meant merely an agreement between the two sides. I’m for that, of course, but the likely contract at EMU will put us, at best, near or below the inflation rate. The prospective 4 year EMU faculty contract will not increase our real earnings, nor decrease our work load, nor allow us to better tend to our students’ academic needs.