Reopener bargaining agreement reachedOn August 23, 2013, CFA and CSU management reached an agreement on reopener bargaining and the distribution of funds set aside by the Chancellor for salary increases. Of the $125 .1 million budget augmentation due to the passage of Prop 30, the Chancellor set aside $38 million for compensation.Pending approval by CFA’s Board of Directors, Unit 3 members will share a total of $19,234,400. Given the modest size of this compensation pool and the magnitude of the need among our faculty we thought it best, this one time, to distribute the money as a flat dollar amount General Salary Increase (GSI) instead of as a percentage. The goal is to get at least some money into every faculty member’s base salary. We estimate that the raise will be approximately $960 for full time faculty and pro rata based on time base for part time faculty. Our raises will be retroactive to July 1 and we expect that they will be distributed before December 1. A Q&A on this reopener agreement will be available by the end of the week. If you have any immediate questions please contact bargainingideas@calfac.org with the subject line “Reopener Bargaining.”In addition to negotiating over salary, the administration made several proposals designed to increase faculty contributions for healthcare. CFA rejected these proposals and made it clear that, given the modest size of the compensation pool and the number of years since faculty have received raises, any discussion of increasing health care contributions was inappropriate at this time.CFA sees these modest increases along with the payment of Equity Year Two as a small down payment on long-overdue pay raises for our faculty. Now, with reopeners behind us, we must turn our attention to preparing for our next contract.Although the current contract will expire on June 30, 2014, it is our intention to begin bargaining well before this date. Bargaining surveys will be available to you online or in hard copy by mid-September. Your participation in the survey will send a message to the administration that faculty will be paying very close attention to negotiations; the results of these surveys will help the bargaining committee develop its contract priorities.It is our intention to sunshine our successor bargaining contract proposals in the fall so that we can begin negotiations before the first of the year. When you receive your contract development survey, be sure to fill it out and let your voice be heard.In union,Lillian Taiz, CFA PresidentAndy Merrifield, Chair – CFA Bargaining Team