EDITORIAL: Final contract offer deserved full Faculty Association vote
The Faculty Association bargaining team should have taken the “last, best, final” contract offer by the Central Michigan University administration to the general membership for a vote before rejecting it.
The offer, which adopted all recommendations made by state fact-finder Barry Goldman, maintained the initial CMU salary offer of a first-year pay freeze, and then 2.25 and 2.5 percent pay increases for the next two respective years. The FA did not negotiate down from its proposal of a one-semester pay freeze followed by a 2.2-percent pay raise next semester, followed by 3.7-percent and 3.9-percent increases in the next two respective years.
While the Central Michigan Life editorial board stands by its previous support of the FA and believes its members deserve fair and equitable terms determined through good-faith bargaining, the bargaining unit needs to be willing to budge for a compromise.
That is not to say the FA has to accept this offer, FA members could easily look at this proposal and shoot it down, and if they do, they will simply be to exercising their rights.
It is understood the group did not have to vote on this, but to be harshly dismissive by not allowing those this will directly effect to participate seems to destroy the point of bargaining for those people.
The fact that it wasn’t being voted on is surprising.
More importantly, this is the last chance for a conclusion to this conflict through negotiation. There is no reason this offer should not have gone to a vote before the FA membership. It was an unnecessarily fast, decisive and absolutist conclusion to five months of negotiations.
The bargaining team honestly believes the FA deserves the pay increases in its contract proposal, and that is respectable. However, it has not adjusted its salary proposal since negotiations began in July, and that is an unnecessary show of stubbornness in this situation.
Compromises need to be made exactly because this is about the future of the university. This is not just about the pride or ideals of either side. This is about education and paving the way for the future through the students at CMU.
