EWU, faculty agree on contract

Eastern Washington University reached a tentative agreement on a contract with its faculty union this week, after a long, contentious negotiation.

The agreement would raise the base pay of faculty members by 9.5 percent in the 2006-07 biennium, provide some one-time raises, and establish a collaborative process for establishing workloads. Those were among the top concerns of faculty members, whose pay has lagged behind state and national comparisons.

In a news release issued Friday, EWU’s new president, Rodolfo Arévalo, and the president of the faculty union, Tony Flinn, expressed satisfaction with the tentative agreement. It comes after months of negotiations reached an impasse and went to mediation in April.

“Reaching this tentative agreement was one of my main priorities since my first day here at Eastern, two months ago,” Arévalo said in the release.

Flinn credited Arévalo for his “decisive leadership” in helping reach the agreement. He and other faculty leaders have been critical of past administrations and the board of trustees for being inflexible in negotiations.

Attempts to reach Flinn in person on Friday were unsuccessful.

Speaking on behalf of the administration, EWU spokesman David Rey said Arévalo has been outspokenly optimistic about reaching a solution and has made it clear that it was a priority of his new administration. He also noted that the agreement helps EWU keep pace with faculty at comparable schools in the region, which was also important to Arévalo.

The tentative agreement still requires the approval of the board of trustees and the membership of the United Faculty of Eastern. It raises base salaries for faculty by nearly 9.5 percent during the 2006-07 biennium, as well as establishing some new annual financial rewards for faculty excellence. It also will revise the processes for evaluating faculty for tenure and promotion, determining workloads and resolving disputes.

Contract negotiations began last June, and the faculty asked for mediation in April after declaring talks stalled. Rey said the mediation process went into the early-morning hours this week, as the parties worked toward an agreement.

After the negotiations entered mediation, many faculty members became more outspoken in their criticism of the administration. The Faculty Organization voted to censure the board of trustees, and faculty members demonstrated on campus, urging support for better salaries and workloads.

EWU’s average professor salary has fallen behind those at Central Washington and Western Washington universities, and the faculty says it’s at the 29th percentile among the school’s peer institutions used for measuring performance and setting goals.

Because of the wide variety of part-time instructors and arrangements with faculty, average salaries can vary. The union has cited an average of roughly $50,000 a year. But the state estimates an average of about $56,000, including only professors, assistant professors and associate professors, but not adjuncts, lecturers and some other levels of instructors.