A tentative agreement was reached between Eastern’s University Professionals of Illinois (UPI) and the administration at approximately 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.

John Allison, chief negotiator for UPI, said the meeting, which was held with a federal mediator, lasted from about 3 p.m. on Tuesday and went until 12:40 a.m. Wednesday. Now that agreement has to be ratified with the membership, depending on whether they choose to accept it. Then it has to be finalized by the Board of Trustees.

The meeting was the 22nd between UPI and the administration, said Bob Wayland, chief negotiator for the administration.

“Both parties are very satisfied with it,” Wayland said. “Both committees worked very hard in their negotiations with the assistance of a federal mediator.”

In a membership meeting on Wednesday, Allison talked with members on the agreement that includes faculty increases of 4.75 percent for the first year, 4.15 percent for the second and third and 3.45 percent for the fourth year.

Chemistry professor Jonathan Blitz has said under this agreement, there is a 6-percent cap for professors. However, people can get a promotion and still get a raise over the 6 percent. For each credit unit (CU) that a professor teaches exceeding what he or she has to, they get paid $1,000, as opposed to the $800 it used to be.

On average, during the last four years, Allison has said faculty and academic support professionals have lost about 5 percent of real income because of inflation and wants to make a push to change that since it will ultimately affect inequality in the workforce.

UPI also is calling for an automatic promotion with tenure and for incoming faculty members to be offered summer teaching.

“Naturally, people had questions about the details, some of which, frankly, have yet to be worked out,” Allison said. “Not every detail has been determined, but in the important areas, I think there’s areas of clarity.”

One of the major provisions on the agreement is the language used, which Allison has said really relates to compensation.

If held, first-time annually contracted members will be eligible to the same sick leave pay and retirement benefits that other employees have had. A cap number also has been placed on the number of sick days, which are counted as cumulative.

In addition, the agreement will allow for earlier access to parental units and child care for cases in which family members have a serious illness or a family emergency. In this case, there will be eligible parental leave after two years of service.

UPI President Charles Delman has said he believed response to the meeting after the tentative agreement was generally favorable.

“No agreement is going to be perfect, and there are still some kinks, if you will, to be worked out of this one,” Delman said. “Turning it from a tentative agreement into a really thorough, complete agreement so people have to look at it and weigh it as they see it, and no one’s going to like everything.”

While a tentative agreement has been reached and put before the members involved, Delman has said the language still needs to be crafted and agreed upon. Then, UPI is going to want to see as much as possible of a finished agreement so they can read the language that will appear in the contract before they vote.

Another meeting to finalize the agreement is in place today.

“I think we’ve realized some significant progress through this negotiation and the tentative agreement,” Allison said.

“You’re not going to get everything you want, but on the whole, it’s a good agreement, I think,” Delman said.

Debra Valentino, an annually contracted faculty member in the English department, speaks with the University Professionals of Illinois cheif negotiator John Allison after the UPI informational in the Roberson Auditorium in Lumpkin Hall Wednesday afternoon

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