Dive Brief:
- The University of Illinois at Chicago and its new faculty union have reached a tentative deal, just in time for the union to call off an indefinite strike scheduled for April 23.
- Details of the proposed contract were not released, but it is seen by the union as an improvement on the university’s “last, best, final” offer earlier this month.
- The tentative deal is for three years, including two retroactive years, through August 2015. Union members have until the end of next week to vote on it.
Dive Insight:
When these contract details surface, they’re certain to become benchmarks for other universities and unions to consider in their own contract negotiations. The union, UIC United Faculty, represents 1,150 tenured and non-tenured faculty at the university, and it was certified last year. It had held a two-day strike in February. According to the Chicago Tribune, the University of Illinois had proposed a two-year agreement ending August 2014, with a salary raise of 2.5% last year—which the two sides agreed on—and a “bridge the gap” offer short of the union’s proposed 4.25% raise for this year. For next year, the union had proposed a minimum increase of 3% for tenured faculty, while the administration had proposed undefined increases equivalent to what non-unionized faculty would receive. The union was also seeking a hike in the minimum salary for fulltime non-tenured faculty to $45,000 from $30,000. Besides pay increases and minimum salaries, the areas of disagreement in the contract talks had included the grievance and tenure processes.