FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 14, 2012
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Contact: Lauren Gutshall
717-579-5359
APSCUF COACHES REACH TENTATIVE CONTRACT AGREEMENT WITH STATE SYSTEM
Harrisburg – Late Wednesday evening, APSCUF coaches and the State System of Higher Education reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement on a successor pact that runs from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2015. The tentative agreement would cover APSCUF’s 400 coaches.
In the four-year deal, the parties agreed to compensation similar to the statewide pattern, an increase in minimum salaries, and a revised health care co-payment that is both affordable and helps PASSHE maintain the current plan. Current coaches and retirees will share the health care plan design that is negotiated for the faculty. The agreement also includes small but important changes that provide the coaches similar benefits to faculty. The details of the tentative agreement will be released after the ratification process is complete.
The next step in ratification is the approval of APSCUF’s Executive Council on December 20, followed by the recommendation of the coach delegates to Legislative Assembly. A ratification vote of the full coach membership is expected shortly after the beginning of the spring semester, which starts on January 28, 2013.
“The team is thankful for the support of Jim Cowden, lead negotiator, and APSCUF staff, especially Julie Reese,” said Diane Monkiewicz, chair of the coaches’ negotiations team. “We are also mindful that our union colleagues in the faculty are still without an agreement and we hope that PASSHE treats them with the same fairness that they showed us on December 12.”
The Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties represents 6,000 faculty members and 400 coaches at the 14 state-owned universities. In 2002 APSCUF became the first union to organize non-faculty athletic coaches in a public higher education system.