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Pennsylvania’s proposed state university faculty pact has bonus, raises

HARRISBURG Pa.

Professors at Pennsylvania’s state-owned universities would each receive an immediate $1,750 cash bonus and annual salary increases totaling 10 percent under a four-year contract agreement released Tuesday.

The agreement between the faculty union and the State System of Higher Education avoids a threatened strike that could have affected 25,000 summer school students at the 14 universities as early as Tuesday. It was reached after a marathon 12-hour bargaining session Monday that capped five days of negotiations.

Gov. Ed Rendell acknowledged some parts of the proposed professors’ contract are more generous than contracts ratified earlier this year by other state employee unions, but said those variations are justifiable.

“I think we’ve fulfilled that in a general sense,” Rendell said during a news conference with union and university leaders. At the same time, he said the union “did a very good job of explaining that there were … certain issues that had to be addressed that were not present or relevant to prior union discussions.”

The previous contract for the 5,500 professors expired at midnight Saturday. The tentative agreement must be ratified by the union and the system’s governing board before it can take effect.

Members of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties would receive the cash payments in the fiscal year that began Monday, followed by pay increases of 3 percent each in the second and third years and 4 percent in the fourth year, according to the joint statement.

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