Trustees to consider 3 percent increase for non-union members

Pay Raise AT 9/2

At their next meeting, the SIU Board of Trustees will discuss giving non-represented faculty and staff a 3 percent pay raise.

University Spokeswoman Sue Davis said details about the pay raise would have to wait until the Sept. 9 meeting, but she would say that, if passed, the faculty and staff will receive back pay as if the raise had begun on July 1, 2004.

Acting SIU President Duane Stucky said this is not uncommon. Each year, the University president proposes to the board a pay increase for non-represented employees, he said.

The represented faculty and staff bargained a 2.5 percent pay raise during contract negotiations in July 2003. Lenore Langsdorf, vice president of the faculty association, said either Faculty Association President Marvin Zeman or she will be at the meeting.

The faculty association is in favor of the 3 percent pay raise for non-represented faculty and staff. If the Board approves the raise, represented faculty and staff will receive an extra half-percent.

Langsdorf said the 0.5 percent increase is not a big deal. She said the bigger issue is dividing the raise in agreement with the faculty association.

Despite the faculty association’s support of the pay increase, Langsdorf said previous negotiations of the faculty association helped set the stage for the possible 3- percent raise.

“Some of us feel, I would have to say I do, that when the administration says ‘Well, we’re give 3 percent to everybody,’ this is done on the back of the work that the faculty association did to get us the 2.5 percent,” Langsdorf said. “So when the administration gives it to everybody, it’s a way of saying ‘You don’t need a union, we’ll take care of you.'”