YEAR IN REVIEW #2: CMU, faculty association reach last-minute agreement on new contract

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The Faculty Association and Central Michigan University reached a tentative agreement on a three-year contract on Dec. 1 after 14 hours of negotiations.

The bargaining was facilitated by Isabella County Circuit Court Judge Paul H. Chamberlain, and a ratification vote by FA members was set for sometime in early January.

“CMU and the FA were in court for a hearing on a request by CMU to make a preliminary injunction permanent, forbidding the faculty from staging a strike, and for a ruling on the appropriate legal venue for hearing a lawsuit filed by the FA against CMU regarding Public Act 54,” a release from both parties stated.

Bargaining between the FA and CMU first started in April, and both filed for fact-finding in July.

After the contract expired on June 30, bargaining continued with state mediator Miles Cameron. Faculty voted overwhelmingly in August to give its seven-member bargaining team power to decide if a job action would be necessary.

On Aug. 21, the FA voted to strike on the first day of the fall semester, Aug. 22. The university filed a preliminary injunction that afternoon to send FA members back to work for four days until the court hearing with Chamberlain, which Circuit Court Judge Mark Duthie signed for him. The injunction prevented the FA from picketing.

At the hearing, Chamberlain extended the injunction until 20 days after Fact-Finder Barry Goldman’s report was released, but lifted the ban on picketing, and allowed them 10/20 drug cards while bargaining continued.

CMU adopted all of Goldman’s recommendations in the university’s final offer, including a pay freeze for one year and modest increases for the following two. It also allowed FA members to keep MESSA as a primary insurance provider until June 30, 2012, under certain conditions.

The FA rejected what the university called its “final offer” for a contract on Nov. 11.

The FA proposed a one-year contract Nov. 22, instead of a three-year contract, and agreed to a one-year pay freeze. The FA also withdrew its proposal for a $600 signing bonus for 12-month faculty.

“We thought that offering a one-year tentative agreement that included every concession from the faculty that the administration demanded would allow all of CMU to move forward,” said FA President Laura Frey in a press release. “In doing so, it also would provide a longer cooling-off period before the teams return to the table next year to begin work on a new three-year contract.”