Editors Note: This corrects a previous article which incorrectly stated the time frame in which faculty received a number of pay increases.
The Cal State University and the California Faculty Association remain at odds over two separate faculty pay raises — one for the 2008-09 academic year and one for the 2009-10 academic year.
The current union contract, ratified in June 2006 and extended past its June 2010 expiration, included these pay raises, but a renegotiation clause allowed the CSU to block them based on economic conditions.
A sticking point involved in the negotiation of these raises is a faculty equity increase, according to Teri Yamada, Cal State Long Beach CFA president.
The equity increase would give a small group of faculty members an additional $20 million the first year and $10 million for the subsequent year, Yamada said.
Although a Sept. 6 neutral fact-finder report recommended the CSU implement this 1.3 percent equity increase, the CSU disagrees with the report.
“It would be inappropriate for the CSU to award a $20 million increase for a small group of faculty when the CSU has lost almost $600 million in state funding,” Erik Fallis, a CSU spokesman, said. “The CSU is not in a financial position to increase facultysalary.”
The CFA, however, disagrees.
“The fact-finder report agrees the money is in the system to provide the equity raise,” Yamada said.
Faculty last received a pay increase in June 2008 when a 2 percent general salary increase was approved, Fallis said.
A general salary increase raises all faculty pay while an equity increase would involve increasing the salary of a few faculty members for a variety of reasons.
“How can you give administration raises when you cannot give faculty raises?” Yamada asked, claiming that the CSU has raised administrative pay since 2008.
The CSU, however, contends that the CFA is wrong when it states faculty salaries have essentially stayed “flat” while executive salaries increased, Fallis said.
According to Fallis, the average salary for tenure-track faculty member has increased by 33 percent for full-time professors, 32 percent for associate professors and 44 percent for assistant professors since 1998. Full-time lecturers have also seen their salary go up by 31 percent, Fallis said.
As CSU and CFA bargaining continues to stall, talks of faculty engaging in “concerted action” have arisen, Yamada said.
While “concerted action” can mean a number of things, including a faculty strike, that is not the plan, Yamada said.
Instead, there are plans to initiate “informational picket” at CSULB on Nov. 9, Yamada said.
Cal State Dominguez Hills also has plans for a “concerted action” on Nov. 17, but the kind of action it turns out to be is ultimately the decision of the school, Yamada said.
“Faculty are not a greedy group of people,” Yamada said. “Faculty in general do not like to strike, they want to teach. This is more about respect for faculty and how the CSU is demonstrating a mismanagement of state funding.”
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