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Four staff employee
bargaining units at California State University, Fresno voted Wednesday,
July 15, to approve a tentative agreement that could lead to
two-day-a-month furloughs for nonfaculty employees.
The vote at Fresno State was 231 in favor of ratification and 42
against, said Nancy Kobata, the Fresno Chapter 309 president.
Fresno State staffers are members of four statewide bargaining units of
the California State University Employees Union, SEIU Local 2579, which
represent administrative staff, librarians, plant operations workers,
office workers, technicians and other employees.
Union members throughout the 23-campus CSU system are voting on the
furlough agreement which was negotiated in response to a $584 million
gap between state support and the cost of educating students at the
nation’s biggest state university system during 2009-10.
If the agreement is approved by members statewide, campus-specific
furlough plans would be adopted for Fresno State and each of the other
22 CSU campuses. The estimated 10 percent salary savings from furloughs
would be added to increased revenue from higher student fees, enrollment
limits, hiring and salary freezes, class-section decreases and
operational, building and maintenance cutbacks to close the gap.
CSU’s Board of Trustees meets Tuesday, July 21, in Long Beach to
consider several strategies to deal with the budget crisis. Other CSUEU
chapters will complete voting this week with the statewide results
presented to the Chancellors Office by noon July 20, Kobata said.
For more information, contact Kobata at 559.347.3921 or 287-3378 or
visit: www.csueu309.org
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