PENNSYLVANIA Tentative professor contract proposed

There is still a question of whether union members will approve the pact.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Professors at Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned universities would forgo wage increases for one year and contribute toward their health benefits for the first time under a $41 million tentative contract agreement brokered by Gov. Ed Rendell, officials said.
Leaders of the 5,500-member faculty union and the State System of Higher Education said Friday the agreement, which if ratified would end months of contentious negotiations, was the best compromise that could be achieved between improving faculty benefits while limiting their cost to the system.
The 14 universities enroll more than 104,000 students. The schools are in Slippery Rock, Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg and West Chester.
Vote outcome?
William E. Fulmer, president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, warned, however, that he was unsure whether the rank and file would ratify the contract.
"We're giving some ground that has never been given before, and I know a lot of our people are not going to be happy with it. Our members need to look at this very closely, and look at the possibilities. The options we have remaining at this point are very limited," Fulmer said at a news conference with the governor at the union's Harrisburg headquarters.
Even though the cost of the pact is $9 million more than the salary and benefits package originally proposed by the state system, Chancellor Judy Hample told a separate news conference it was "manageable," based on the system's projections for future state aid and tuition increases.
"It's really been about finances. We believe we have an agreement that does what we set out to do from the outset, primarily to make sure our universities remain affordable," Hample said.
Terms of pact
The agreement calls for no salary increase in the first year; seniority-based raises only in the second year; and a 3 percent increase in each of the two remaining years, plus seniority-based increases in the fourth year. The professors also would have to contribute toward their health benefits but would receive prescription-drug benefits for the first time, Rendell said.
The announcement came at a time that the union was expected to announce whether it would go on strike in response to stalled contract talks. The faculty contract expired June 30.
The two sides had been negotiating a new pact since August 2002 but had been unable to agree on salaries, health benefits and the use of temporary faculty, among other issues.
The union unsuccessfully sought contract provisions that would place limits on class sizes, but both Fulmer and Rendell said they agreed that the union's concerns about this and other issues could be addressed outside the collective bargaining process.
Labor representative
Rendell said that when Fulmer told him over the summer that the contract talks were "going nowhere," he asked Ken Jarin, his labor representative, to work with both sides to come to a resolution. Formal negotiations ended after the last bargaining session Dec. 19.
Jarin had played a key role in helping Rendell negotiate contracts last year that froze wages temporarily for tens of thousands of state workers.
The union voted overwhelmingly in late September to authorize its leadership to call for a walkout.
The agreement must be endorsed by the union's executive council, which meets Feb. 19, and then considered by APSCUF's leadership assembly during a two-day meeting over Feb. 20-21, Fulmer said. The assembly would then decide whether to forward the proposal to the union membership for a vote.