On Wednesday, May 22, negotiations continued between Temple University and the Temple Association of University Professionals (TAUP), the union that represents full- and part-time faculty members, librarians and academic professionals at 13 of Temple’s 17 schools and colleges. During the session, the university provided TAUP with a new economic proposal, which exceeds the one provided to the union on May 1.  

The new proposal includes a minimum of 14% across-the-board salary increases over the life of the contract, with those at a lower salary tier receiving the highest increases. Provided they qualify for merit raises, the salary increases will be even higher. For comparison, in the recently expired agreement between the two parties, TAUP full-time employees received 7.25% in across-the-board salary increases over the life of the contract.  

The university’s updated offer includes base salary increases of 4% or $4,500 (the larger number of the two) for full-time bargaining unit employees in year one, with those at a lower salary tier receiving the highest increases, along with a 1% merit pool, and then 2.5% across-the-board raises with an additional 1% merit pool in each of the next four years. These are among the most substantial increases that the university has ever offered to TAUP, and the offer is in line with other recent collective bargaining agreements reached at peer institutions. 

“Temple has a history of reaching positive outcomes with all its 11 bargaining units, and we know from experience that collective bargaining is a very complex process. It takes time to work through these complicated issues to reach a fair agreement,” said Sharon Boyle, vice president for human resources. “For that reason, even before negotiations began, we pushed for an extension to reward our hardworking faculty members but also begin conversations to work through these mutually identified issues. 

“We had hoped that our offer of an extension would allow our faculty to receive an immediate raise, while we worked through the bargaining process with TAUP. As it stands, the union’s members have not received a raise since July 2022 because the offer for an extension was rejected,” Boyle added. “While we would like to be a bit farther along in the process at this point, we are making progress, and we remain committed to meeting with TAUP to negotiate a fair contract that benefits our faculty members and the Temple community.” 

During the May 22 bargaining session, TAUP provided the university with both an economic counterproposal and a noneconomic counterproposal. Temple is currently reviewing both proposals. 

TAUP’s previous collective bargaining agreement with the university expired on Oct. 15, 2023. The two parties have been negotiating toward a new agreement since Aug. 18, 2023. 

The parties are next scheduled to meet on Friday, May 31, and three additional negotiation sessions have been set for June. 

Visit temple.edu/taup-negotiations to view updates regarding the negotiation process.