Chancellor's Office release:
CSU AND CFA reach tentative three-year contract agreement

The California State University announced May 10 it has reached a tentative three-year contract agreement with the California Faculty Association.

The CFA leadership is recommending faculty ratification of the agreement, which resolves all remaining issues, including merit pay with an appeals process, and greater job security for long-term lecturers.

"We are very pleased to have a tentative agreement. The CSU and the CFA leadership worked exceedingly hard over the past two weeks to reach this point. Compromises were made by both parties in the best interests of all concerned," said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed. "This agreement will not only enable us to increase faculty salaries across the board, but it will allow us to reward many more outstanding faculty with merit pay. In so doing, we will come closer to paying CSU faculty what their peers earn at comparable institutions."

As part of the agreement, the CSU faculty will receive a 5.2 percent average salary increase for 1998/1999, and two-year contracts will be awarded to more than 3,000 lecturers with at least six years of continuing service beginning in 1999/2000 and 2000/2001. In addition, the faculty salary pool for 1999/2000 will be 6 percent, assuming the CSU receives the budget it requested.

There are a number of other benefits for the faculty included in the agreement, but both parties have agreed to limit public discussion of the specifics until the CFA could present the details to the faculty.

"All of us at the CSU greatly respect the faculty and know they are responsible for the success of our students and our university. I am pleased this tentative agreement, which maintains the principles of merit pay combined with an expanded faculty appeals process, could be reached. I hope this tentative agreement will receive the enthusiastic support of the CSU faculty," concluded Chancellor Reed.

The tentative agreement was to be sent to a vote of the CFA membership during the ten days following the tentative agreement and then presented to the CSU Board of Trustees Collective Bargaining Committee for approval. CFA and CSU officials believe a final agreement can be adopted by the end of this month.