Results of faculty strike vote to be announced
Press-Democrat 3/21/07
"This is unprecedented, this is historical," said Andy Merrifield, president of the Sonoma State University chapter of the California Faculty Association. "No one wants this. Everyone of us would prefer to have a fair contract.
"This is the right thing to do, we have been negotiating for 23 months," he said.
Negotiations, meanwhile, have resumed between the faculty association and the universities in an attempt to head off a strike, CSU spokesman Tom Browning said.
CSU trustees have scheduled a special meeting Sunday to take a position, which they plan to announce Monday, Browning said.
Contract talks between the association and the CSU system deadlocked in the fall over wages and the matter was submitted to fact-finding.
A nonbinding recommendation was issued Thursday to the association and CSU. It will be made public Monday.
The faculty association is asking for a four-year contract with a 25 percent salary increase.
Tenure-track faculty earn an average $71,000, although the range goes from $50,000 for new faculty member to an average of $86,000 for long-time professors. Instructors make the equivalent of $43,000 a year.
The association has 300 members at Sonoma State, representing 500 faculty, instructors, librarians and coaches.
Statewide, it has 10,100 members representing 25,000 faculty, librarians and coaches at the 23 state universities.
CSU is offering a contract which it says is worth 24 percent over four years, although the faculty contends that is an inaccurate representation of the pay raises.
If the strike is authorized, faculty association spokeswoman Alice Sunshine said a two-day rolling strike can't begin before Monday, and probably would not start until April. It's likely to affect only a handful of campuses at one time.
"Our commitment is to make sure that business doesn't go on as usual at the CSU," Merrifield said. "We are not trying to close the university permanently, we are just tying to make everything clear. Everything is geared to bring them back to the table to negotiate."