Cal Poly’s faculty union president said Tuesday that the union negotiated about as well as it could to reach an agreement.

Glen Thorncroft said he’s glad the contract negotiations have settled and that stability with the contract has been reached.

And he said although the faculty won’t be getting pay increases, other wishes have been met, which may not have been achieved if the faculty didn’t vote for authorization to strike.

Those include achieving pay equity to bring certain faculty who are currently at below the pay grade up to the level of similar positions at other universities.

“I never expected us to be cracking open a bottle of champagne after this contract was signed,” Thorncroft said. “But we got something we were comfortable with.”

Thorncroft added that the faculty members hope to develop a good relationship with the next chancellor of the Cal State University system as CSU Chancellor Charles Reed in May announced his retirement. Reed will stay on until his replacement is appointed.

In recent years, faculty members have taken furloughs and forgone pay increases in a bad budgetary time even though cost of living has risen.

“We’ll be preparing for the next contract and hopefully for the economy to rise up again,” Thorncroft said.