Recent office professional contract agreement changes little, maintains problems
The agreement reached between CMU and its office professionals means very little is changing for the employees under contract.
Despite several frustrating months of negotiations putting pressure on the university, office professionals are seeing a 2-percent increase in retirement funds over three years and a slight change to the way wages are tied to those of the professional and administrative staff.
It is hard to expect a raise in this economic environment, but the way office professionals’ chances to receive raises are determined is unfair.
Office professionals receive raises when professional and administrative staff receive wages. In simple terms, office professional staff make less money than professional and administrative staff, so pay raises are more critical to how they make a living.
Any raise would be more critical to an office professional making yearly wages in five figures than an administrator making six figures.
Arguments could be made that the office professionals came out on top since their wages are not being cut this year, as budget concerns tighten spending across the university.
Whenever there is a contract dispute with the university, the party in question will stress their importance to the university, be it faculty, administrators or any other group.
Particularly with office professionals, the services they provide are instrumental to the university and its operational infrastructure.
With this contract negotiation ending up essentially a continuation of the previous, there is likely to be a considerable amount of pressure for a raise in wages at the end of this contract’s three years. If they were to get into a strike situation, a huge part of the university’s operations would stop. These employees are vital to the smooth operation of this institution.
This university needs to take care of this particular pool of employees and give them enough compensation to keep them here and working.
In the negotiation of the next contract, the biggest issue may be the ability for office professionals to negotiate for raises independent of the professional and administrative staff. If current economic trends continue, the next round could be tense.
The ball is going to be in the court of the office professionals after this contract expires.
