WhilePennsylvania State System of Higher Education universities struggle with a combined $40 million budget shortfall, faculty leaders of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF) are meeting today in Monroeville to decide whether to seek approval for a strike if their salary and other new contract demands are not met.

In total, the wage and benefit enhancements APSCUF is seeking in a new four-year contract with the State System could exceed $100 million. The latest salary proposal submitted by the union would cost the State System an additional $64 million over four years, including an extra $5.4 million this year. The State System also would have to pay out, at minimum, an additional $23 million in higher health insurance costs over the next four years as a result of the union’s refusal to consider a premium cost-sharing plan for its members and a shift to a Preferred Provider Organization. A litany of other demands for higher compensation would cost at least $13 million.

Even after student tuition was increased 5 percent and wages for State System managers and 4,000 staff were frozen at last year’s levels, the State System faces a $40 million budget shortfall this year.

The union’s demands come at a time when the State System faces fiscal challenges unprecedented in its history.The 14 state-owned universities already have been required to make significant cuts in their operating budgets because of the System’s revenue shortfall—due primarily to multiple years of reduced state funding.

The State System is asking the faculty union to agree to a one-year wage freeze as part of a new four-year contract. Other unions representing State System employees already have agreed to a freeze, and Chancellor Judy G. Hample announced August 28 System executives, administrators and managers, including the chancellor and all 14 university presidents, will receive no salary increases this year.

The State System’s latest proposal to APSCUF includes salary increases in the second, third and fourth years of the contract. The salary increases would cost the State System $32 million over four years, half of what the union is seeking in higher salaries. State System faculty salaries consistently rank in the top 10 percent among similar public institutions.

Faculty, beginning in the second year of the new contract, also would be required to pay 10 percent of their health insurance premiums. Based on anticipated rates, faculty would pay approximately $28 a month for single coverage and $75 a month for a family plan.

Other unions representing State System employees earlier this year agreed to a premium-sharing plan in order to help preserve their healthcare benefits in the face of rapidly rising costs.

The State System's healthcare costs went up 12 percent this year and are projected to increase by 17 percent next year. The contribution the System is asking faculty to make toward the cost of their health care would cover only a portion of that increase.

A new survey just released by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that nationwide 92 percent of all workers with family healthcare coverage contribute to the cost of premiums. The average required contribution is $201 a month.

The State System and APSCUF have been negotiating for more than a year in an attempt to reach a new collective bargaining agreement. The prior contract expired June 30, 2003. There has never been a faculty union strike in the history of collective bargaining between APSCUF and the state-owned universities.

With more than 101,000 students, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth. Its 14 universities offer more than 250 degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study. More than 375,000 System alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.

The state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The System also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Kittanning, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg. The regional centers are part of the Educational Resources Group, which is responsible for coordinating statewide programming.