March 21, 1995
The California Faculty Association is preparing its members for a fight with the California State University Board of Trustees if they fail to reach a contract agreement soon.
Former SF State CFA President Tim Sampson said he is getting union members ready if the CFA and the CSU fail to reach an agreement during this round of negotiations, which began last Thursday.
The CFA's contract expired in June 1993 and was extended for one year, SF State CFA President Rick Gutierrez said. Faculty, who have received one pay raise in the past five years, have been working without a contract for nearly eight months.
CFA members have expressed their disagreements to the CSU Board of Trustees by writing letters to CSU Chancellor Barry Munitz.
But that form of protest may change.
Faculty and staff are discussing picketing and demonstrating as options if major contract issues are not resolved, Gutierrez said.
"I'm not saying it's going to happen," Gutierrez said. "I'm saying that people are talking about it which I haven't heard people talk about for many years on this campus."
The major sticking point in contract negotiations has been a CSU proposed change in how teachers receive pay raises. Issues such as the protection of academic freedom, cost of living increases and more job security for long-term lecturers are also unresolved.
Under the CSU-proposed "New Merit Scheme" professors would receive salary increases based on a performance review. In the past teachers automatically received an annual 5 percent raise.
"We want to reward people for the work they do," CSU spokesperson Colleen Bentley-Adler said about the proposed change.
SF State Counseling Chair Amy Hittner said the merit-based pay raise system won't work. Hittner, who used to work at George Mason University, which used a similar system, said colleagues refused to work together on research because of competition over salaries.
Foreign Language Chair Julian Randolph said the "New Merit Scheme" is a clever title to use, because no one is against giving performance-based raises.
"What they are disguising by using that term is this: they want to uncouple rank from salary," Randolph said.
To receive a raise under the proposed plan an administrator or dean would review a pool of professors and decide who deserves a raise. Some faculty members would not receive raises every year. CSU administrators will nominate people for performance pay awards but the final decision on who will conduct the reviews will be made by the campus president and his decision is unreviewable.
The CFA wants a 6 percent pay increase now to make up for five years of missed step increases. But the CSU says it only has $21 million to give a 1 percent pay raise to all faculty and a 2.4 percent pay raise to teachers who qualify for step increases, according to a CFA press release.
Gutierrez said that CSU administrators have always claimed they can't afford the pay raises the CFA requests.
"And on those years the CSU has always found the money," Gutierrez said.
Some CFA members have been critical of Munitz's lack of leadership in current contract negotiations.
"We have been pressing Munitz to get involved and he has resisted doing so," Sampson said. "He says 'let the collective bargaining process work.'"
At SF State, President Robert A. Corrigan has been supportive of the faculty, but has not been a leader in Long Beach, Sampson said.
"I'd like to see Corrigan and other presidents speaking out," he said.
Sampson said Corrigan lacks the courage that he praised civil rights leader Rosa Parks for in a recent column.
"When they tell the presidents, 'keep quiet and get to the back of the bus,' someone's got to stand-up and say that's wrong. We've got to get these raises for the faculty," Sampson said.
"I don't think Corrigan is the Rosa Parks of presidents," he said.