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California State University and the California Faculty Association have reached an agreement that will avoid a strike by faculty members.
That agreement will pay professors, instructors and other union members a 10.5 percent pay increase during the next three years, seven percent of which is scheduled to begin this summer, Cal State University Chancellor Timothy P. White said.
The remaining three percent will kick in during the 2017-18 fiscal year. The settlement also raises the vesting period for retiree benefits from five years to ten years for employees hired after July 1 of next year, and it extends the collective bargaining agreement between the two parties to June 30, 2018.
It also boosts salaries for tenured faculty members who are promoted. They will receive a nine percent salary increase rather than the current 7.5 percent.
The agreement must still be approved by the faculty association’s board of directors, association members and the Cal State University board of trustees.
“We’re absolutely delighted that we’ve reached this agreement with the faculty association,” White said during a conference call with the media. “No one wanted a strike. Cal State didn’t want a strike, the faculty didn’t want a strike and our students didn’t want a strike. It’s good that we avoided that interruption.”
Both sides have been deadlocked for nearly a year. Cal State offered a two percent increase, while the faculty association and its estimated 25,000 members refused to settle for anything less than a five percent pay hike.
Both sides avoided what would have been the largest strike in the history of U.S. higher education, as faculty and staff at all 23 Cal State campuses would have been impacted. A walkout was scheduled to begin Wednesday.
