Cal State professors preparing for two-day strikes
North County Times 2/12/07
The job actions, those union leaders say, would begin with professors not reporting to work at a handful of campuses on two consecutive school days. When those professors return to work, their colleagues at another handful of campuses would go on two-day strikes, according to the plans.
Plans call for the job actions to continue until a new contract is reached with the administration, with the possibility that some campuses might experience a second round of walkouts, union leaders said. A schedule for the walkouts has not been set, they said.
While labor leaders often make such threats as a negotiating ploy, the faculty leaders said they intend to follow through on their plans if significant progress is not made during the final stage of mediation, which began Friday.
But the professors did acknowledge that the threat of a walkout could prompt the administration to return to the bargaining table, which is their main goal.
In interviews this week, professors on the San Marcos campus said the proposed job actions are necessary to get the attention of the administration after nearly two years of contentious negotiations, which have yielded a final contract they find unacceptable.
Rallies at every campus in the system and protests at meetings of the system trustees in Long Beach have not prompted the administration to offer a fair contract, the union leaders said, which has made job actions necessary in their view.
In response, administration officials said such job actions would be an unreasonable move based on the generous package of raises included in the final offer they made before negotiations reached an impasse.
Administration officials have also expressed optimism that the final stage of mediation, which is called "fact finding," might resolve the situation.
Professors said they chose two-day walkouts as opposed to a general strike so that they could send a message to the administration while impacting students as little as possible.
Student leaders on the San Marcos campus said they support fair pay for their professors and appreciate the faculty's decision not to call a full-blown strike, but they also said their classmates are concerned about how the threatened walkouts would affect their coursework.
Ugly negotiations
The administration has described its final offer as a 25 percent raise over the life of the four-year contract, which would run from July 2006 through June 2010.
In contrast, the faculty union, which is known as the California Faculty Association, says the administration's final offer only includes about 17 percent in guaranteed raises for professors.
The professors say that 8 percent of the money is based on unwarranted assumptions about the state budget, merit pay increases they say they despise and creative accounting regarding a change in annual longevity increases.
"Their offer doesn't look much different than ours on the surface," said George Diehr, a business professor at the San Marcos campus and a member of the faculty union's statewide negotiating team. "But when you get into the details, we are pretty far apart."
Claudia Keith, chief public relations official for the administration, disagreed.
"I think it's a matter of interpretation," she said.
Faculty leaders say that 3 percent of the increases would evaporate if state lawmakers do not agree to boost the university system's budget by an extra 1 percent in each of the next three years.
Diehr said it is unlikely that such money will ever reach professors based on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's refusal to include such an increase in the proposed budget for 2007-08 he presented last month.
Keith said system administrators are disappointed the governor did not fund the requested increases for 2007-08 that the contract offer relies upon, but she said that the money could still become part of the budget this summer. She also expressed confidence that the money will be included in future years.
Diehr said an another 3 percent would come in the form of "merit" raises, a new concept for the university system. Diehr said professors are worried that merit pay would allow campus presidents to funnel most of the money to teachers who never question campus policies.
"There would be no appeals process, so the money would go only to administration favorites," Diehr said.
On merit pay, Keith stressed that quality professors deserve better pay, and that the money is a significant amount no matter how it is awarded.
"Money is money," she said. "No matter how you divide it up, it's still going to the faculty."
Diehr said the remaining 2 percent has to do with annual 2.65 percent step increases that the administration would force the faculty to "buy back" with small reductions in compensation increases.
He said it is inappropriate to take such money out of pay raises because the longevity increases are counterbalanced by savings achieved when higher-salaried professors retire and get replaced by lower-paid newcomers.
Keith said that no matter how you look at longevity increases, they are still something the system would have to find money to cover.
A last resort
In addition to angst about the contract offered, professors have expressed frustration that system executives have received 17.7 percent raises over the last two years, that salaries for community college professors are rising much faster than their salaries and that new hires typically make more then veteran professors in the system because raises have been so small in recent years.
A brand-new system professor typically earns $58,000 per year, while the average annual salary for veteran professors is just $57,000, Diehr said.
Linda Holt, a math professor on the San Marcos campus, said this situation, which the faculty calls "salary inversion," is a major problem.
"Inversion is causing huge morale problems because the people who have been here for a few years are making less than newcomers," she said.
John Montanari, a business professor on the San Marcos campus, said the system salary slump has been particularly ill-timed to coincide with a major surge in housing prices in California.
"I think professors are focused on how this is impacting their ability to raise a family and own a home," said Montanari, who has worked on the San Marcos campus since it opened in 1990.
Holt and Montanari said the two-day work stoppages are crucial, because the administration has been ignoring their complaints.
The strikes would begin after fact finding concludes sometime in mid-March. The union's contract allows for job actions if the administration imposes a contract on professors, which would happen if fact finding does not help resolve the impasse, said Diehr.
There have been no job actions of this magnitude since the faculty union was established nearly three decades ago, he said.
Gaining momentum
Janet Powell, president of the union's San Marcos campus chapter, said that a campus informational meeting held last week on the proposed walkouts drew about 70 of 225 faculty members.
"I saw a lot of new people we haven't had at meetings before," Powell said.
Powell said chapter presidents across the state have reported that they have had an easier time than expected rallying their colleagues.
Diehr said the union is hoping for more than 50 percent participation, explaining that professors are now signing cards that pledge their support for the walkouts.
"There is a groundswell of interest and concern among professors," Diehr said.
Montanari said many of the faculty regret that their quest for higher pay will have an impact on students, but he said the administration's unwillingness to bargain fairly makes the job actions necessary.
Holt agreed.
"We don't want to hurt students," she said. "But we need to do something that will send a message to the people who make the decisions."
Powell said professors carefully chose two-day walkouts out of concern for students.
"Our priority is not letting the students down," she said. "A full-blown strike could jeopardize the graduation plans of some students."
Administrators on the San Marcos campus have said they do not expect the rolling walkouts to be a major disruption.
"Should the faculty elect to engage in a rolling strike, we anticipate minimal impact on the campus," said Mary Elizabeth Stivers, associate vice president for academic resources.
Roy Lee, president of the student government at the San Marcos campus, said many students want to see the professors receive the compensation they are due.
But he also said students are confused and worried how they will be affected.
"Students are a little concerned," said Lee. "We all hope this matter will get settled before anyone's academic progress is impacted."
Lee said that student leaders appreciate that the union is not planning a general strike.
Keith, the administration spokeswoman, said it is too early for the union to be planning job actions because fact finding has just begun.
But Powell disagreed.
"We need to be ready in case fact finding fails, which we unfortunately expect to happen," she said.