The CFA Bargaining Team and the Chancellor's representatives met for a contract bargaining session earlier this month and made some progress on non-controversial issues. The Chancellor's Office remains unyielding on major issues, including workload and wages.
Number of Tenure-Line Faculty
At the talks, CFA introduced a counter-proposal on contract Article 12 (Appointment) calling on the CSU to increase the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty. The long-term loss of tenure-line faculty is at an all-time high and contributes to workload increases among faculty. Since 2007, the CSU has lost more than 500 tenure-line positions.
Specifically, the proposal presented by CFA says: "By the end of academic year 2012/13, at least 500 more probationary and tenured faculty unit employees shall be employed throughout the CSU than were employed there at the end of academic year 2010/11." By the end of the following year, the increase would be 1000 tenure-line positions.
Workload and Class Size
As we know from personal experience, the number of students per faculty member is rising, jeopardizing the quality of students' education. The Chancellor's representatives countered CFA proposals on Article 20 (Workload) with what can be characterized as, "Workload problem, what workload problem?"
CFA stressed that the last 20 years has seen a huge increase in the ratio of students to tenure-track faculty, and CFA provided data to demonstrate this trend. The Chancellor's representatives suggested that since they believed other universities did not put meaningful limits on faculty workload, the CSU should not have to either.
CFA is pushing for improved workload language, so that we would have a system in which shared governance processes were used to establish standards; the collective bargaining agreement would be used to enforced those standards.
The CSU response ignored the critical issue of increased class size and its negative impact on the quality of education; it also ignored the important role of shared governance in determining class sizes.
Faculty Salary
The Chancellor's representatives rejected CFA's proposal for implementation of Year 2 of the Equity program and Salary Step Increases for all who are eligible. They also rejected CFA's proposal for a 1% general salary increase (GSI) in three of the next four years (with a possible higher GSI if the CSU budget reaches a threshold funding level). The Chancellor's representatives stuck with their position of Nothing Now and Less Later.
Regarding salaries, CFA notes that in the CSU's public statements, the Chancellor's Office repeatedly suggests that there is a 3% compensation pool for next year -- implying that those funds will be available for CSU employees. This is disingenuous at best, considering that they have put no money on the table and have rejected CFA's modest proposal for a 1% increase.
CFA believes, given that the CSU budget is larger today than it was in 2007 when our last raises were negotiated, the system already has sufficient funds to pay the modest salary proposal that we have made.
Additional items discussed
Some progress was made on important issues related to fair treatment of all faculty through a tentative agreement on Article 16 (Non Discrimination). The tentative agreement adds gender identity to the areas on which the CSU will not discriminate.
CFA made a proposal on Article 1 (Recognition) that includes protective language to ensure that faculty work in the CSU will continue to be performed by bargaining Unit 3 faculty. This was in part a response to apparent moves by CSU managers to contract out work in various ways.
CFA also stressed the importance of clarifying parts of Article 1 (Article 1.7) related to the use of counselors to ensure the highest quality care for our students. The CSU agreed that this issue must be addressed soon. Outsourcing is of increasing importance to the faculty because of the Chancellor's inclination to expand extended education and to outsource CSU classes to outside online providers.
The CFA Bargaining Team meets Chancellor Reed's representatives again later this month for further negotiations on our new contract. We will be sure to keep you updated on developments.
