The California State University and the faculty union announced a tentative contract agreement Saturday, effectively ending a year of stalled negotiations, protests and threatened strikes.

The proposal surprised some union members, who had threatened to strike in late March if a contract agreement wasn’t reached.

“Reed had seemed to me so belligerent, I figured he was pushing us into a strike,” Lustig said. “It did surprise me.”

CSU Spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow said the agreement benefits both parties and allows the system’s 23 campuses to get back to its main purpose of educating students.

“We’re very happy to have reached an agreement with the union, and we’re very happy the faculty will be able to get the kind of increase they deserve,” Potes-Fellow said.

If approved, the three-year contract would give faculty two 2 percent increases, one in April and another in July, Sunshine said.

Negotiations for a third increase would re-open in 2003, depending on what the state’s economic situation is like by then.

The contract proposal provides faculty with 2 percent pay increase in each of its first two years, and also includes additional funding for additional raises, health care for full-time lecturers and stipends for department chairs, said California Faculty Association spokeswoman Alice Sunshine.

The agreement also provides improved job security for non-tenured lecturers and excludes merit raises based on outside projects.

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