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Concessions, pay raises included in YSU faculty agreement
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown State University’s chief human-resources officer sent a memo to administrators, outlining terms of the tentative agreement the faculty union is expected to vote on Monday.
“The TA is the product of many months of work on the part of the faculty and administration negotiation teams,” Kevin Reynolds wrote in the Friday memo to the Executive and Administrative Staff Council and department heads. “We are hopeful that the faculty will vote to accept the tentative agreement.”
The memo was obtained by The Vindicator.
University trustees unanimously approved the agreement last week, and a union vote is expected Monday afternoon, although Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez, the union’s chief negotiator, said last week that approval will be difficult. Faculty regards the agreement as what would amount to a second concessionary contract, he said after the trustees’ vote.
The agreement includes bonuses and pay increases for faculty. The Vindicator previously has reported those details, which are reiterated in Reynolds’ memo.
The amount of the bonus would be $1,000 for full professors, $750 for associate professors, $650 for assistant professors and $500 for instructors the first year.
In the second year, there’s also a bonus based on academic rank and a 0.5 percent increase in base pay for all members. The bonuses are $1,200 for full professors, $950 for associate professors, $850 for assistant professors and $700 for instructors.
In the third year, there would be a 2 percent pay increase but no bonus.
“Faculty will continue to contribute, in aggregate, 15 percent of health care premiums — the same percentage as faculty currently provide,” Reynolds wrote. “The only difference will be in how those premiums are calculated for individual faculty members beginning July 2015. The calculation is based on a method proposed by the faculty union and accepted by the administration in the tentative agreement. The tentative agreement also provides for improved and lower-cost dental and vision coverage.”
Palmer-Fernandez has said the union members’ health care contribution will be 15 percent, using a sliding scale rather than a flat rate.
Reynolds’ memo also says Extended Teaching Service will be eliminated.
“Instead, for this year only, retiring faculty will receive a retirement incentive amounting to $40,000, paid over five years,” it says. “Summer pay calculations will be revised, impacting faculty with salaries in excess of $65,000.”
Reynolds’ memo says both negotiating teams “should be commended for finding common ground, especially in these difficult financial times.”
It says trustees “took the initiative and, breaking with past precedent, voted unanimously last week to approve the new collective bargaining agreement.”
Members of the faculty union previously voted that they would vote after the agreement had been ratified by trustees.
Previously, the trustees’ vote came after union approval.