CSU faculty strike vote scheduled
Times-Standard 2/22/07
After 22 months of trying to reach a labor agreement with California State University administrators, the board of directors of the California Faculty Association unanimously decided Tuesday night that it will authorize a vote of its members on whether they want to move forward with a strike.
”We have said all along that we do not want to strike, but we will if that is what is necessary, and it is beginning to look like it is,” said CFA President John Travis, a political science professor at Humboldt State.
If the faculty members do walk out, it will be the largest strike of higher education teachers in U.S. history. Faculty and student strikes took place on many college campuses during the 1960s era of political unrest, but they were social protests, not union strikes.
Travis said, “The CSU administration's take-it-or-leave-it offer would not allow the faculty to keep up with inflation -- despite the false information the chancellor's office has been putting out. The lies and lack of good faith negotiations have only unified the faculty over the last few months.”
He added: “There are too few resources for our classrooms and too many increases in student fees. The administration has refused to offer the faculty a reasonable wage and falsely promoted their unfair alternative proposal as much more than it really is. Now, the faculty is going to have the opportunity to let our voices be heard on whether or not to move forward with job actions.”
This will be the first time the CSU faculty has taken a strike vote. The voting will take place March 5-8 on some campuses and March 12-15 on the remaining campuses.
Voting will be conducted on site and online. The votes will be counted by the League of Women Voters on March 19-20, and results will be announced March 21.
According to the association, since 2002, fees have gone up 76 percent -- and with the additional 10 percent hike to be proposed by the CSU Trustees next month, student fees will have risen by 94 percent since 2002.
The association said that since 2002, executive salaries and perks increased by an average 23 percent while faculty pay grew by just 3.5 percent.
Contract talks between the union and the California State University system have hit an impasse and a fact finder is currently working to resolve the issues between the two sides. Those results are expected in early March, but Travis said the union will proceed with its voting timetable.
The CFA's labor contract technically expired last July, but has been extended by both sides until the fact finding process is completed and results are agreed upon by both sides.
A simple majority vote is necessary to call a strike. If faculty members vote to walk out, the CFA board of directors will determine when the rolling walkouts will begin.
State law prohibits strikes among higher education employees, but Travis said they can take place if the fact-finding process fails.
Travis said the work stoppages would be “rolling walkouts,'' in which faculty members would strike for one or two days on different campuses. The goal is to minimize impact on students, “while sending a strong message to the administration,'' Travis said in a conference call press conference Wednesday.
Paul Browning, a spokesman for the California State University system, said, “Our biggest concern is would it hurt the students. Class closures concern us greatly. If there's a 2-day rolling strike and a student only has classes two days, missing one day is quite a bit.
“We've worked hard to give them (CFA) an excellent offer. It would be disappointing if they do go on strike. We're trying to keep a positive outlook and hope this doesn't happen.''
The average salary of permanent, full-time professors is about $86,000 annually, according to Browning. Tenure-track faculty earn an average of $74,000 annually. About half the faculty members -- some 12,000 -- work under temporary contracts and earn less than $43,000 a year.
Travis said CSU faculty overall is paid about 18 percent less than their peers across the country.
Travis said if strikes takes place he hopes students don't stay away from campus. “We hope they'll come out and join us.''
He added that if rolling walkouts aren't effective, faculty members could go to a full strike.