AFT higher education locals bargained up to the final hour in Pennsylvania and Michigan, managing to avert strikes. Full-time faculty, part-time faculty and classified units at the Community College of Philadelphia, represented by the Faculty Federation of CCP, came to tentative agreements the night before well-mobilized union members had planned to strike.

The agreements provide an innovative salary schedule for the full-timers, raising salaries an average of 3.5 percent annually over the life of the four-year agreement. The part-timers' agreement makes modest progress on closing the gap between full- and part-time teaching pay disparities. And for all three units, the agreements maintain health benefits.

In Michigan, the Graduate Employees Organization/AFT went to the wire on negotiations to secure a minimum of an 8.5 percent raise over the life of the three-year contract, including significant child care subsidies. (See details at http://www.geo2002.org/.)

The Teaching Assistants' Association of the University of Wisconsin also achieved important child care support in the two-year contract its membership ratified this month. The university agreed to increase its contribution to the Child Care Tuition Assistance Program by 8 percent, says Sandra Levitsky, TAA chief negotiator. That comes in addition to close to 7 percent salary increases pending approval by the state. Look for more on these settlements in the Contract Roundup in the near future.  [Barbara McKenna]

April 1, 2002