State fact-finder sides with university on pay and health care coverage in CMU Faculty Association contract dispute

After two months of anticipation, a state-appointed fact finder has released his report on the labor dispute between Central Michigan University administration and its faculty association. There were eight issues where the two sides presented their arguments to the fact finder, Barry Goldman. The two biggest issues are salary adjustments and health care benefits; Goldman recommended the university’s proposal on both issues. “There are two brute facts in this case,” Goldman said. “The first is that we are in Michigan in 2011. Politically and economically there has never been a worse time for public sector collective bargaining.” While admitting that CMU has cash reserves, (then $228 million in unrestricted assets) Goldman said this isn’t the time to spend them. “Circumstances are bad and getting worse,” he wrote. “It would be extremely unwise for CMU to eat its seed corn.”

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