Wright State’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved a tentative agreement with the faculty union at a meeting last night, bringing more than two years of contract negotiations to a close.
The board greenlighted two separate contracts that will run consecutively until June of 2023.
Under the agreement, union members will shift into the staff’s health care plan, but keep their rights to bargain over health care terms in the future. The deal retains the prior contract’s language on workload and merit pay. And, it also allows faculty members summer teaching opportunities, but at lower pay rate.
Board chairman Doug Fecher says moving forward, officials will focus on helping students recover from strike disruptions. He also says the administration will work on restoring its relationships with faculty.
"We need to reach across the aisle to the faculty and sit down and really talk about what it will take so that we can rebuild trust, rebuild transparency, and rebuild the relationship between the administration and the faculty so that we can move forward as one university," says Fecher. "That's critically important."
Union members will vote on the deal in the coming days.