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Letter from CFA Executive
Board (9/1/06)
Dear Colleague,
As you know by now, the week-long
bargaining marathon this summer with the CSU administration did not
result in a final agreement on a new faculty contract. While we were
able to make progress on some key issues that we believe will improve
working conditions for faculty, Chancellor Reed’s negotiating team
proved intransigent on the key issues of salary increases and workload
improvements.
In fact, they have yet to make any
proposal to improve our faculty workload. On salary, they have made a
proposal that simply does not adequately address the difficult economic
realities faced by the CSU faculty.
CHANCELLOR REED’S SALARY OFFER
UNCOVERED
A recent misleading email message
from the Chancellor’s office suggested that the administration had
offered the faculty a 20.75% salary increase package over four
years. This claim is simply untrue.
Here’s the fine print that
explains why the California Faculty Association bargaining team
found the administration’s proposal unacceptable.
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The Chancellor’s Office
statement, first of all, included the 3.5% general salary
increase (GSI) that faculty already received for the past
academic year—hardly a part of a future salary “package.”
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Another 2% of their “package”
would be contingent on an additional funding allocation from the
Governor and legislature beyond what is already contained in the
“compact.” This contingency is particularly worrisome given how
steadfastly the CSU administration has avoided seeking
additional budget funds over the past two years.
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Still another 3% of the total
would be subtracted from the GSIs (General Salary Increases for
everyone) to fund step increases (SSIs) for those faculty
members who are eligible.
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Yet another 3% would be
allocated to an undefined so-called “merit” program that would
give the administration unfettered discretion to hand out raises
while leaving faculty not chosen with no meaningful appeal
rights.
In reality, the package amounts
to less than 10% in salary increases during the next three years
that faculty members can count on.
After years of uncertainty with
low raises or no raises, CSU faculty members deserve bigger and more
predictable raises than this proposal puts on the table. The CFA
bargaining team believed this offer to be insufficient, especially
in light of the average increases in compensation (salary, car and
housing allowances) of 19.5% provided to executives in the single
Academic Year of 2005/6.
OTHER SHORTCOMINGS OF THE CSU
ADMINISTRATION’S PROPOSAL
In addition to providing too few
dollars and too many strings, the administration’s proposal also
falls short in the following ways:
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It fails to make progress
toward fulfilling the Chancellor’s public promise to close the
CPEC gap in five years (this is the gap calculated by the
California Post-Secondary Education Commission between average
salaries earned by CSU faculty and those earned by faculty in
comparable universities;
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It fails to address the
compression problems that have trapped senior faculty salaries
for years;
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It fails to solve the
inversion and equity problems that plague many newer faculty
members who have taught in the system for several years.
CFA’S SALARY PLAN
By bringing more dollars overall
to the salaries of faculty during the next three years, the CFA
proposal would make progress toward closing the CPEC gap. Our
proposal would also bring much-needed predictability to faculty
salaries and fix a number of structural problems in our broken
salary system. While we are open to creative solutions that will
seriously address problems, we are committed to a plan that
includes:
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More dollars overall;
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Relief for salary compression
problems by allowing senior faculty to move above the SSI
maximum;
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Equity dollars in a clearly
defined program that addresses salary problems of newer faculty;
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Guaranteed Service Salary
Increases not funded by reduction of the General Salary
Increase;
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Adequate GSIs not contingent
on specific salary funding from the legislature and governor.
WHY CFA’ S SALARY PLAN IS THE
RIGHT THING TO DO
For years, the CSU faculty,
staff, and students have borne the impact of the system’s budget
crisis. Student fees have skyrocketed 76% and, with the exception of
a small 3.5% General Salary Increase last year, the faculty has gone
without across-the-board and service increases for too many years.
At the same time, the Consumer
Price Index in California continues to rise; each of us pays much
more today for basics like gasoline, utilities, and housing than we
did just a few years ago. Our low salaries have made hiring and
retaining new faculty a particular challenge. Morale among all of
our faculty members—newer faculty, senior faculty, and Lecturers—has
never been lower.
The CSU’s reluctance to make
serious improvements in faculty members’ salaries is all the more
shameful in the face of their actions on behalf of the systems’
executives. Less than one year ago, on the same day that they voted
to raise student fees, 23 campus presidents received an average
13.7% salary increase and $30,000 more in perks for housing and
cars. These raises were more than many faculty members’ entire
salaries.
As if these actions were not
disgraceful enough, the San Francisco Chronicle exposed a systemwide
scandal in which the CSU Trustees and administration provided
exorbitant golden parachutes to departing executives. In example
after example, the Chronicle revealed that past CSU campus
presidents and executives received hundreds of thousands of scarce
university dollars as “transition pay” or in the form of “consultant
fees.”
In the face of $4 million dollars
already shown to have been expended on these dubious programs and
hundreds of thousands more they spent on huge raises for their
executives, the CSU has an obligation to take the salary needs of
the faculty seriously.
CFA’S SALARY PLAN IS REASONABLE
AND AFFORDABLE
When the Chancellor establishes a
priority he manages to find the funding for it. Fair and competitive
faculty salaries should surely be one of his highest priorities.
Given the size of the CSU budget—$2.8 billion from the General Fund
alone, $197 million new dollars in the 2006/07 budget, and
significant increases in unrestricted net assets over the last
several years, we believe that the CSU has the resources to provide
faculty with a fair raise.
In fact, if the Chancellor really
believes that he cannot afford one, why has he not gone to the
legislature to ask for more funding? His indifference to the faculty
salary crisis makes it clear that if we are to get the salary
increases that we need and deserve, we will have to be prepared to
fight for them. The Chancellor knows the CSU faculty are hurting
financially; callously, he is banking on our willingness to take
their inadequate offer.
In this case, however,
“something” isn’t better than nothing. If we accept what the
administration bargaining team has put on the negotiating table, we
will not fix our broken salary system and will find ourselves with
the same—and worse—problems in the future.
Click here
for a side-by side comparison of the CSU and CFA proposals.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP WIN THE
CONTRACT WE DESERVE
On August 18 volunteers from each
campus met in Los Angeles to prepare for activities to increase
pressure on the Chancellor’s bargaining team. As campuses open,
these CFA activists will be reaching out to each of you for your
assistance and support. Here are some things that you can do.
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Visit www.stoptheripoffs.org
and send a fax to Chancellor Reed telling him to stop wasting
money on executive parachutes and instead, to prioritize faculty
salaries. This takes just a few minutes to do.
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Plan now to join other
faculty members and supporters on November 15 at the CSU Board
of Trustees meeting for a public Town Hall to Stop the Rip-Offs.
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Join CFA at other Board of
Trustees meetings: September 20 and October 26. Trustees
meetings are held at 401 Golden Shore, Long Beach.
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Become a member of the
“Chancellor Action Team” to help keep our issues before
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Chancellor Reed wherever he
goes. Contact your CFA campus chapter to volunteer.
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Attend the Bargaining
Information Meeting when it is held on your campus.
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Participate in campus-based
actions locally in support of bargaining. These will be
announced on your campus by your CFA chapter.
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Re-elect business professor
George Diehr to the CalPERS Board. Your ballot was mailed to you
on August 21. It must be returned by September 29, so don’t
delay.
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Elect Phil Angelides as
Governor of California on November 7.
Every event and every faculty
member who turns out will make a huge difference in the final
result. Working together, we can make historic improvements in
working conditions and salaries so that faculty can best serve our
students and the mission of the CSU.
In union,
John Travis, President
Lillian Taiz, Vice President
John Halcón, Secretary
Kim Geron, Treasurer
Andy Merrifield, Associate Vice President, North
David Bradfield, Associate Vice President, South
Elizabeth Hoffman, Associate Vice President, Lecturers
Cecil Canton, Associate Vice President, Affirmative Action |
