CCP faculty and staff union reaches tentative agreement, averting a strike
A strike that was set to begin at 7 a.m. Wednesday will not happen. The four-year agreement includes raises and smaller class sizes.
Just a few hours before its members were set to strike, the faculty and staff union at Community College of Philadelphia reached a tentative agreement for three new contracts for its members, union and college officials said.
The union had said it would begin a strike 7 a.m. Wednesday if an agreement had not been reached.
The agreement means classes will continue for the college’s 12,400 credit students and 1,381 noncredit students enrolled there this spring.
» READ MORE: CCP faculty and staff union set to strike Wednesday
“We reached a tentative agreement that will significantly improve the lives of our faculty and staff members and will improve the learning conditions of CCP’s students,” said Junior Brainard, copresident of the union. “This win at CCP demonstrates the unity and strength of working people. Our membership represents everyone from the lowest paid classified employee to the highest paid faculty member, and all of our members stuck together to fight for each other and the common good.”
CCP president Donald Guy Generals also hailed the agreement.
“We are grateful for the hard work and collaboration that brought us to this milestone,” he said in a statement. “The agreement secures fair terms and wage increases while ensuring the financial sustainability of the college. The college is thankful the spring semester will proceed uninterrupted for our students, faculty and staff.”
The agreement includes a four-year contract as the union wanted; the college initially proposed three years. The college more than doubled its initial wage increase offer, said Shannon McLaughlin Rooney, vice president of enrollment management and strategic communications.
Members will receive a 6.5% increase in the first year, 5.5% in year two, and 5% in both year three and year four, Rooney said. The minimum hourly wages for classified employees will rise to $23 an hour by year three of the contract.
The minimum starting salary for a full-time faculty member is currently $56,095 for the academic year, Brainard said, while the average full-time faculty salary is $79,400. Part-time faculty start at $1,671 per credit hour, or approximately $5,000 per course, while staff earn a minimum of $16.48 an hour.
Most recently in negotiations, the college had been offering a three-year contract with raises of 5%, 4%, and 4%, while the union was seeking a four-year pact with raises of 9%, 9%, 6%, and 6%.
Also under the pact, class sizes will be reduced: Those currently capped at 36 will fall to 32 and those capped at 32 will fall to 28, Rooney said.
Four weeks of paid parental leave will be added, she said. The college did not agree outright to pay for free SEPTA passes for students, which officials said would cost more than $2 million. But the college agreed to add union representatives in negotiations with SEPTA that ultimately could result in free transit, Rooney said.
The union wants students to get free transit as soon as possible, Brainard said.
The agreement will be put to union members for ratification next week and then to the college’s board of trustees for a vote.
The announcement follows lengthy bargaining sessions over the weekend and a marathon session that began on Tuesday and lasted into the early hours Wednesday morning.
The 1,200-member union, which includes full-time faculty, staff, and adjuncts, has been negotiating for more than 14 months; previous contracts for faculty, staff, and adjuncts expired Aug. 31.
The two sides had entered fact-finding over the union’s objections. Striking is prohibited during that process, according to state labor law, but the union had said it didn’t think the fact-finding process was legitimate because the college missed the deadline for applying for it; the college has disputed that assertion.