Cal State faculty authorize strike
Daily Bulletin 3/22/07
Officials are uncertain what dates a strike will take place at the Pomona campus. Faculty members and students are still enjoying spring break until Monday when the new quarter begins.
But the state-mandated labor negotiating period - a 10-day "quiet period" when findings from the independent mediator's report are released - ends Monday.
Gwen Urey, CFA chapter president for Cal Poly Pomona, said the time period provided one last chance to return to the bargaining table to settle issues of wages and benefits.
"We don't know if they're going to make any progress," she said.
Urey said the union will begin preparations for the strike.
"It was what we expected - it wasn't a surprise," said Urey. "The sentiment on campus is that there is a lot of frustration."
CFA members voted 94 percent statewide in support of the strike. If the CSU administration does not settle with the CFA, the largest university strike in U.S. history will take place.
Urey said that she had talked to other Cal Poly Pomona CFA union members throughout the day who had expressed happiness over the news the strike passed with such a resounding yes vote.
Ron Fremont, Cal Poly Pomona associate vice president for university relations, said that his campus was preparing a contingency plan as a result of Wednesday's news.
"It appears that CSU is looking at two-day rolling strikes on individual campuses," Fremont said. "It is our hope that the CSU can reach an agreement with CFA as soon as possible so we can focus our attention on education."
Fremont was uncertain when the Cal Poly Pomona campus would be impacted by the strike because each campus was acting independently.
"We are certainly dialoguing internally about how we're going to mitigate this," Fremont said.
Urey said on Friday and Saturday, faculty statewide will begin seriously planning for a strike.
"A whole bunch of us are going to be spending all day Saturday training for the nuts and bolts of how to make the strike happen on our campuses," she said.
Fremont said the university wanted to minimize the impact of the strikes on students.
"We do want to ensure that student academic programs are uninterrupted. Our focus will always be on the students."