Temple, faculty union reach agreement

With classes for the new semester set to start Monday, Temple University has reached a tentative contract agreement with its faculty union, officials from both sides announced yesterday.

The four-year pact would run through Oct. 15, 2012, but officials from both the union and administration declined to provide other details until union members are informed today.

"The members of the Temple University bargaining team have worked long and hard to achieve this important goal, and I am proud of the work they have done to create an agreement that is both fiscally responsible for Temple and fair and equitable to our faculty," president Ann Weaver Hart said in a prepared statement.

Union officials also were pleased. The sides bargained on Monday and Tuesday, reaching a tentative accord Tuesday evening, said Arthur Hochner, president of the Temple Association of University Professionals.

"It was a lot of very hard work," Hochner said. "We wanted to reach a settlement before the new semester begins next week."

The union, which represents 1,280 employees, has been without a contract since last October. Negotiations, which have gone on for 14 months, have been tenuous at times, with the sides at odds over union membership fees, salary increases, and other issues. The university last week said it had filed an unfair-labor-practice complaint against the union.

The agreement is subject to approval by both the board of trustees and the union, with votes expected next month.

The administration earlier this week said it had offered the union 1.75 percent base-salary increases for fiscal 2010 and 2011, a 1 percent merit pool for each of those years, and a 1 percent bonus in each if federal stimulus funding comes through.

No base increase would have been given retroactively for fiscal 2009 under the proposal, but a 1 percent merit pool would have been applied. The contract would have been opened later to negotiate salary terms for later years.

The union asked for members to receive a 2.75 percent base-salary increase for 2010 and 2011 rather than the bonus.