PASSHE’S CURRENT PROPOSAL WOULD SERIOUSLY DAMAGE FACULTY RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION EFFORTS
HARRISBURG - Many uncertainties must be ironed out as both sides prepare for the resumption of contract talks for 5,500 faculty members at Pennsylvania 14 State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) universities. Bargaining resumed Thursday morning in Harrisburg.
No individual contract articles have been approved to date, and the PASSHE’s description of their salary proposal is not being met with smiles at APSCUF headquarters.
“Last Saturday, the PASSHE issued a news release claiming that faculty salaries would be ‘extremely competitive’ under the system’s latest proposal. In reality, the faculty would lose money and faculty members would be leaving in droves if we accepted that proposal,” State APSCUF President Pat Heilman said.
The PASSHE is proposing the following:
2007-08: $1,250 bonus payment in the fall, and a step increment in the spring.
2008-09: 2% general pay increase in the fall, and a step increment in the spring.
2009-10: 2% general pay increase in the fall, and a step increment in the spring.
2010-11: 3% general pay increase in the fall, and a step increment in the spring.
Along with those figures, the PASSHE is also proposing an increase in the health benefit premium payment percentage in the final three years of the four-year pact, from 10% of premium costs to 30% in the final year of the contract.
“You have to remember that those health benefit premiums are going to rise each year and would cost the faculty more money. In fact, our health care consultant estimates a 10% increase in the premium cost in 2008-09, 8.5% in 2009-10, and 10.5% in 2010-11. That would dilute salary increases for faculty.”
A faculty member currently paying $1,200 in annual premium payments (10% of $12,000) would see that cost balloon to $4,747 (30% of estimated $15,825) by the end of the contract.
Heilman also criticized the delaying of the step increments each year.
“The annual step increments have existed for faculty at our institutions for many, many years - even before the advent of collective bargaining in 1971,” Heilman noted. “Faculty members who were below the maximum always received an annual increment. Those at the top of the scale only received the across-the-board general pay increases. We operate on academic years, and the steps were always awarded at the beginning of the year (fall semester). The move to January makes no sense for an employee group where 98.9% begin their employment in the fall.”
The current collective bargaining agreement broke with the step tradition, as no faculty members received steps in the first year or third years of the pact. Now, the PASSHE is proposing that the step increments are granted in the spring of each year rather than the fall.
“On the average, faculty salaries will increase only 11.7% under the PASSHE’s proposal,” Heilman observed. “However, 3.3% of that increase would be offset by increased health care costs, resulting in an 8.4% increase over four years.
Then, Heilman said, inflation would take its bite of the increase.
“During the same time period, we expect to see inflation rates of 4.6%, 3.5%, 3.5%, and 3.5%. Thus, adjusting for inflation, the faculty salaries would be MINUS 6.7% of purchasing power over the contract period. Please forgive us for not greeting this proposal with open arms.”
“There’s lots of room for improvement in the PASSHE’s proposal. The future quality of the PASSHE hangs in the balance,” Heilman concluded.