C. To confer and negotiate in good faith with respect to wages, hours, working conditions and contract grievance arbitration, except that by such obligation neither party is compelled to agree to a proposal or required to make a concession;

D. To execute in writing any agreements arrived at, the term of any such agreement to be subject to negotiation, but not to exceed 3 years; and

E. To participate in good faith in the mediation, fact finding and arbitration procedures required by this section.

Sec. 100. 26 MRSA §1026, sub-§1-A, as repealed and replaced by PL 2001, c. 559, Pt. JJ, §1, is amended to read:

1-A. Additional bargaining; community college employees. Cost items in any collective bargaining agreement of technical community college employees must be submitted for inclusion in the Governor's next operating budget within 10 days after the date on which the agreement is ratified by the parties. If the Legislature rejects any of the cost items submitted to it, all cost items submitted must be returned to the parties for further bargaining. "Cost items" includes salaries, pensions and insurance.

Cost items related to a collective bargaining agreement reached under this chapter and submitted to the Legislature for its approval under this subsection may not be submitted in the same legislation that contains cost items for employees exempted from the definition of "technical community college employee" under section 1022, subsection 11, except that cost items for those employees exempted under section 1022, subsection 11, paragraph D need not be excluded.

Sec. 101. 26 MRSA §1026, sub-§4, śC, as amended by PL 1989, c. 443, §70, is further amended to read:

C. In reaching a decision under this section, the arbitrators shall consider the following factors:

(1) The interests and welfare of the students and the public and the financial ability of the university,