News digest News digest (March 19, 2004)

County employees approve contract extension

The largest union of employees working for Santa Clara County government has agreed to forgo a cost-of-living pay increase in 2004 as part of a two-year contract extension.

Instead, members of Service Employees International Union, Local 715, agreed to a 3 percent increase in 2005.

SEIU members voted overwhelmingly to ratify the contract extension. The union represents 8,000 county workers.

"We believe this is a win-win agreement for these difficult times," said Brian O'Neill, chapter chair of Local 715. "The county gets a degree of labor and financial security for two years. Services will be saved for the community, and county workers get benefit protections and job security."

The agreement also calls for $3 million in labor cost savings when union members deferred part of their pay raises for 10 pay periods in 2003 to be used for training and retraining the county workforce.

--Don Kazak
Stanford sees small gains in women, minority faculty

Stanford University experienced slight gains in the number of women and minority faculty last year, though the rate of growth has been slower than in the past several years, according to Pat Jones, Stanford's vice provost for faculty development.

Jones presented her findings earlier this month before Stanford's Faculty Senate.

The number of women on the faculty increased by 14 last year to 394 of the 1,715 total faculty. The number of minority faculty increased by 13 to 292 of the total faculty.

"While the numbers of women faculty and faculty of color grew last year, the increases in both groups as proportions of the total faculty were small, each .4 percent,'' Jones said.

"We recognize that to make more rapid progress in increasing the representation of the faculty, it is critical to increase the representation of women and individuals of color in our applicant pools.''

Overall, the faculty grew by 29 members (1.6 percent) to 1,774, reflecting 109 new appointments and 80 departures during the academic year ending in September.

Growth in faculty numbers has been slower over the past three years compared to the previous seven years, when it ranged from 2 to 3.7 percent, Jones said. The biggest increase in faculty last year occurred in the Medical School, with 14 new appointments.

-- Bay City News Service Peace vigil set for Sunday

Marking the one-year anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, there will be a interfaith gathering at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at First United Methodist Church, 625 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto, followed by a candlelight vigil on University Avenue.

Susan Galleymore, the mother of a solider serving in Iraq, will be the featured speaker at the interfaith gathering. There will also be a children's choir and a youth choir performing.

There will be peace demonstrations in San Jose, San Francisco and other cities Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of the start of the war.

-- Don Kazak

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