The United Faculty of Western Washington reached settlement on its first contract, after 16 months of talks and an intense Memorial Day weekend of negotiations. Just days before the May 26 settlement, the AFT executive council passed a special resolution to express "profound disappointment" with the progress of negotiations between the United Faculty of Western Washington and the Western Washington University administration. (See earlier story.)

UFWW is a unit of 750 full-time and nontenure-track faculty that voted for union representation and joint affiliation with AFT Washington and the Washington Education Association (and the AFT and NEA) in February 2006. It is one of four locals in the Washington State University system that are part of the United Faculty of Washington State/AFT/NEA.

Talks came to a stalemate over the need for binding arbitration on workload, a grievance procedure, and higher salaries (i.e., salaries above the lowest one-third salary scale for comparable faculty in the state). The settlement provides those features and gives all faculty a one-time bonus of 4 percent, plus a 10.5 percent raise in September.

"This is a good and fair contract that wouldn't have been possible without the solidarity of faculty, alumni, and AFT and WEA members across the state," says UFWW president Bill Lyne. "The UFWW is grateful to everyone for all their help."

May 30, 2008