In a few days, the faculty may finally have a contract.

After reaching a tentative contractual agreement approved by the Board of Trustees March 18, almost six months later the faculty and university have yet to finalize their proposed four-year deal.

But should it have taken that long?

Math professor Charles Delman, negotiating for the faculty union, estimates the deal should be finalized “very soon.” Bob Wayland, the university contract representative, estimated “a few days.”

Delman, the president of the University Professionals of Illinois, said the faculty and university objective now is ” to provide detailed contract language that follows the outline satisfactory to both parties.”

Translation: Turning verbalization into written words without leaving loop holes both sides could exploit or misinterpret.

“There’s no hardball going on now,” Delman said, adding ” … it’s English. It’s just a matter of things getting said right.”

Eastern faculty and university representatives cited the lengthy delay on the difficulty translating verbal agreements onto paper, along with the rigors of scheduling meetings around summer vacation.

The proposed contract approved for faculty to receive 2 to 3 percent salary increases over the next four years. The terms also included:

* increased wages for non-tenured, Unit B faculty members.

* faculty intellectual property rights or copyrights for published work.

* university power to assign faculty members distance education via Internet or off-campus sites.

“We are meeting and making good progress,” said Wayland, director of employee and labor relations.

In an informal, unscientific poll conducted by the reporter, seven faculty members expressed little concern the contract had not been finalized. Those interviewed said because they still receive their paychecks the lack of a signed contract does not bother them.

The proposed contract offered no salary increase for 2003. Originally, a monetary bonus had been possible but a recession in the state economy thwarted that. In the next three years, faculty salaries will increase 2, 2.5 and 3 percent.

“Everyone on both sides wants to be as careful as possible when a whole contract is opened up, so it’s bound to take more time than people would like,” English professor and UPI member John Allison said. ” … the exact language does take some work to hammer out in precision because people are going to have to live with the consequences of the language for a long time.”

The faculty might be split on how frustrating an unsigned contract is.

David Radavich, an English professor and former UPI president, said many of his colleagues are expressing frustration.

“I’m hearing quite a bit of discomfort and concern,” Radavich said. “I’ve tried to reassure people but professors (and) faculty are still concerned.”

SIU took 12 days, others less than a week

Dealing with a similar contractual situation earlier this year, Southern Illinois University ratified a tentative agreement last semester and finalized it in 12 days,.

James Kelly, chair of the public information committee the Faculty Association, Southern’s faculty union, said contract ratification occurred Feb. 7 and that on Feb. 19, Southern’s Board of Trustees OK’d the closing terms.

“I’m quite surprised, yes, but I really don’t know the circumstances,” Kelly said about Eastern’s situation. “Prior agreements have been concluded in a similar timeframe. In other words, a matter of days or weeks.”

Lee Carroll, an executive assistant for an Illinois-bureau of Teamsters, a union organization that represents more than 1.4 million labor workers across the nation, said most of their contract negotiations are finished within a few days of reaching an initial agreement.

Last week, Carroll said he completed a contract for around 150 workers in three days.

“Well, I can’t find a proper word, but it’s a little more than odd,” Carroll said about the more than six-month gap. “It would appear to me that something is amiss there. I don’t understand why it would take even five months.”

About 75 percent of Eastern’s 576 faculty members are members of UPI. When the UPI voted to settle the contract in February, it was backed by a 325 to 19 vote.

Carroll said in his experiences, once verbal agreements are met, the finalizing process is quick because rough drafts of the contract should be logged on a computer.

“Plug the disk in, proof your changes; proof read it and sign it,” Carroll said.

A possible reason for the delay

Radavich, who negotiated on behalf of UPI during the summer, said a first draft of the contract was not received from administration until the end of June or early July. And for most parts of July, Radavich said administrators canceled meetings.

“That’s a good question,” said Radavich, who preceded Delman as UPI president, when asked why administrators had not delivered a draft in March, April or May.

Delman said on Monday night the contract had one more topic to finalize before the contract was completed. He could not disclose what the final holdup was.

Once the contract is completed, it will mark the end of a renegotiation process that began in February of 2002. Contract discussion stalled, and by October 2002, plans for a faculty strike began.

“We were very close,” Delman said. “We were closer than you’d like to get.”

A federal mediator momentarily calmed the threat but in late January, Delman says UPI passed strike authorization, appointed a committee and were looking into coordinators. UPI was even looking into alternative office space to act as headquarters.

“I don’t really feel bad about anything,” Delman said. “I don’t think we made any concessions that we feel were unreasonable. I’ll admit the administration asked us to do things that we can justify. We don’t mind accommodating to some of their concerns.”