Supervisory technical union, university reach tentative agreement after 14 months
The Supervisory-Technical Association has agreed to a tentative agreement with Central Michigan University after 14 months without a contract.
Friday, 73 out of 118 STA members voted on the contract issue. Only two of them did not vote in favor to accept the agreement.
Kevin Smart, director of employee relations, will present the new contract to University President George Ross Monday to make it official.
Smart, who has acted as the chief spokesperson for the university's bargaining team, said he expects Ross to agree to the contract.
The new contract will be effective until June 30, 2013 and will replace the STA’s previous contract, which expired on June 30, 2010.
"We’re not really satisfied, but at this point, it’s the best we can get," said Tena Best, STA president and payroll technician. "We’re going to accept this and move on."
Best said the contract will give the STA a pay freeze this academic year, followed by a 0.5-percent wage increase for the next two years. Under the previous contract, STAs received a 3-percent pay raise each year.
The new contract will also match any wage increases CMU's Professional and Administration Association union are given.
Before, the STA paid for 7 percent of its insurance coverage. Under the new contract, it will pay 8 percent.
Best said the bargaining teams met 16 times and were in negotiations for a total of 20 months.
State fact-finder Barry Goldman, currently working on the case between the Faculty Administration and the university, would have been scheduled to begin fact-finding for the STA on Oct. 26, Best said.
The STA bargaining team included Best, Melvina Gillespie of the Michigan Education Association, Maintenance and Repair Technician Mark Blackmer and Health Information Specialist Sheryl Sias.
CMU's bargaining team included Director of Employee Relations Kevin Smart, Coordinator of Media and Marketing for Employee Relations Mary Lou Morey, Financial Planning and Budgets Analyst Kim Devries and Manager of Library Business Services Gerry Edgar.
"We did a darn good job for not having a contract," Best said. "We still continued to come to work and take care of our students."
Smart credits the agreement partly to Gov. Rick Snyder's collective bargaining amendments in the Public Employment Relations Act in June. The amended law, Public Act 54, requires employees to pay for any increased cost in benefits that incur after the previous contract has expired, and prohibits them from getting raises until a new contract is in place.
"That puts a burden on the employees' pocketbooks," Smart said. "I don’t know if (Snyder) meant to do that, but I think it was to keep contract negotiations from going on too long."
STA member and Music Resources Supervisor Carol Hebert said the issue was not just about the money, but about respect.
"It is said that when one door closes, another opens," Hebert said. "Whether we close the door on respect and open the door into the grand darkness that is big business, is up to all of us, here and now"
