THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1999

CFA, CSU reach second deal

By Matthew L. Green

On-Line Forty-Niner

After ramming heads for more than 15 months in a bitter labor struggle, the faculty union and the California State University have nodded their heads to a new tentative contract.

The agreement reached Monday was the second tentative deal between the CSU and California Faculty Association, a labor union representing 20,000 CSU professors, counselors, librarians and coaches. CFA members voted in February to reject the previous tentative labor contract after local and state CFA executive boards recommended members reject it due to the boards' disapproval of merit pay.

This time, however, both the local and statewide boards recommend the contract, which CFA members next week will vote on whether to accept.

"It's not the best [contract]," said Hamdi Bilici, CFA president at Cal State Long Beach. "But it's satisfactory. Sooner or later we [the CFA and CSU] had to have an agreement. We have to work together [to run this university]."

"We are very pleased to have reached a tentative agreement," said CSU Chancellor Charles Reed in a CSU press release. "The CSU and the CFA leadership worked extremely hard over the past two weeks to reach this point."

Under the three-year agreement, CSU faculty would receive an across-the-board raise of 3 percent for the 1998-99 academic year, up 0.5 percent from the contract the CSU forced faculty to accept in March.

The contract is retroactive, starting during the 1998-99 academic year. Because the contract goes into effect retroactively, CSU faculty would get back pay for this academic year.

Along with merit pay, faculty members could grab a 12.9 percent raise.

Also new faculty would not have to fight with tenured faculty for pay raises based on merit, contrary to the first tentative agreement. If new faculty members satisfy minimum performance standards, they will get a 2.4 percent raise for 1998-99 and 2.65 percent raise for 1999-2001.

Also lecturers would receive two-year contracts.

Faculty will receive these benefits under the contract if the CSU is granted the budget money it has asked the state for.

Details of the contract will not be released until the CFA has presented the details to faculty members.

The agreement comes two weeks after more than 200 faculty members picketed Reed in Sacramento at a conference. Protesters carried signs reading "No more merit pay" and "Reed has got to go" outside the Hyatt Regency hotel, where a meeting on strengthening the ties between state government and public universities.

But the anti-Reed sentiment has not disappeared despite the agreement.

"He has to show he really respects faculty if we [the CFA] are to believe him," Bilici said. "It takes time to heal the wounds."

"All of us at the CSU greatly respect the faculty and know they are responsible for the success of our students and university," Reed said in a press release.

If CFA members accept the tentative agreement, the contract will go to the CSU Board of Trustees, which decides if the faculty get the deal.

The CFA will hold a meeting today at 4 p.m. in the Chartroom to explain the contract to faculty members.

Faculty members not belonging to the CFA can become CFA members at the polls and then vote. CFA members also can vote by e-mail at cfa@csulb.edu.

Voting times are:

· Monday from noon to 8 p.m. on the first floor of Library East.

· Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the first floor of Library East.

· Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the first floor of the University Student Union.

· Thursday from noon to 3 p.m. on the first floor of the Student Union.