Bargaining Issue: Balancing Risk

Times are uncertain: on this we can all agree. Every budget contains a certain amount of guesswork, but the next two years have more than usual. Among the things we don't know are two biggies: how long the economy will stay bad; and whether a ballot measure will succeed in repealing $733 million of tax increases. The question is, who takes on this risk and who will enjoy the benefit if adopted worst-case scenarios don't come to pass?

As bargaining proceeds, the answers to these two questions will go a long way toward deciding whether we can find a deal we can live with.

On the bargaining team, our philosophy has been that we're willing to share risk with the University, but we want to share the rewards, as well. Moreover, we feel its critical that after this crisis passes, we're not worse off than we were before it arrived. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that the University shares this philosophy. Two things concern us:

• The deficit for the budget is projected to be $21 million, but PSU has written in an additional $4.1 million to cover possible shortfalls related to the economy and ballot measures. In effect, PSU is asking us to take salary cuts so that they can build reserves in case of emergency.
  
• PSU has not included increased enrollment in their budget, though they know there will certainly be more students. Disconcertingly, it appears that this additional cushion is not being considered as an offset for salary cuts--no matter how large the enrollment increase.
  

The bargaining team's concern is that this budget shifts all the risk to workers and hedges all the rewards.

We are continuing to bargain over the summer, and a subcommittee made up of members of AAUP and University bargainers has been busy trying to resolve some of these issues. Our next bargaining session is scheduled for August 28th--just days before the current contract expires. Keep checking back to the blog; we'll keep you posted as we learn more.