While Eastern’s negotiating committee accepted a tentative agreement last week, five other state universities are not as far along in employee contract negotiations.

Chicago State University, Governors State University, Northeastern Illinois University, University of Illinois Springfield and Western Illinois University have faculty and staff represented by the University Professionals of Illinois.

Most of their three-year contracts were set to expire last August, and now the universities are in different stages of negotiations ranging from talks and informal picketing to federal mediation and threats of striking.

There has never been a strike at an Illinois state school.

The schools

Chicago State University, whose contract was originally set to expire in August, began negotiations in advance starting in July, the university’s UPI chapter president Laurie Walter said.

Walter said federal mediation has recently been requested, but no mediated meetings have been scheduled yet.

“(Negotiations) have been going on for an awfully long time. We think some things are starting to move now,” she said.

Walter said a main component during talks have been issues of sick leave.

“Most of what we’ve got has not been economics,” she said.

She said another issue is multi-year contracts for non tenure-track faculty who have been at the university for an extended period. Those faculty are now annually contracted.

Eastern called for federal mediation before Christmas.

Walter hopes mediation at Chicago State will make a difference in negotiations because of the perspective it offers.

“Mediation can be very helpful, I gather, because it’s an outside person,” she said.

An administration representative at Chicago State from the office of employee and labor relations was unavailable for comment. Administration have previously said they decided to save money by leaving some faculty positions unfilled, but cannot afford to increase compensation.

For the majority of negotiations, both sides at Eastern identified the primary issues in negotiations as faculty and staff compensation, workload and distance education.

Governors State University shares salary and teaching load as two of the most important, along with the issue of employee rank, said local president Marsha Katz.

She said no agreement has been reached on the issues, as well as on distance learning, property rights and credit unit guidelines.

Union members are not happy with the administration’s offer, and federal mediation will begin at Governors State later this month, Katz said.

Eastern’s UPI chapter president David Radavich has previously said universities nationally have been feeling the move to resemble corporations, with the administration pushing for more control in some areas.

Katz said Governors State has seen some of that trend.

“(Administration) are trying to institute rank as the method of control.” She said the issue only involves university professors.

Compensation is the main trouble at University of Illinois Springfield, said chapter president Kemy Brown.

Brown said the UPI chapter represents only support staff.

The university recognizes the union’s members are paid less than employees at the other University of Illinois schools, she said.

“We just keep falling behind, salary wise, with our peers in Champaign and Chicago,” she said. “Our biggest concern is salary improvement.”

Federal mediation also was recently called for at UIS.

“(Negotiations) are not going well at all,” Brown said. “We’ve been told there’s not money for salary improvement.”

A pattern

Northern Illinois University is the only UPI school not negotiating this year and talks for a possible three-year contract will not be until 2006, said chapter president Sandy Flood.

She said compensation will likely be a primary issue in future negotiations.

“The money doesn’t go back to the faculty where it should be … I think that’s the point of these campuses,” she said. “Over the longer term we desperately need to get these universities to acknowledge where its priorities are money wise.”

UPI state president Sue Kaufman agreed universities have been feeling the pressure to become like corporate models, an issue that can come up in contract negotiations.

“There has been for some time a definite tilt towards corporation … as treating students as being the consumer and treating the educational process as being part of a process,” Kaufman said. “It has to do with … how people view higher education.”

She said the issue surrounds priorities in education.

“A university decides where it’s going to place it’s priorities … it manages to put money everywhere but in faculty and staff salaries.”

Eastern’s tentative agreement will bring labor peace back to campus, said Bob Wayland, director of employee and labor relations.

“I don’t really see any gains or losses by either party,” he said. “We were finally able to peacefully resolve all our issues.”

Eastern’s faculty will have the opportunity to ratify the agreement this week. The proposed contract is the result of 11 months of negotiations.

Radavich said the contract supports academic quality and will bring stability back to higher education.

Southern Illinois University Carbondale union members ratified a contract agreement this month. They are not represented by the UPI.