Professors set their caps for a strike
Modesto Bee 3/22/07
Of dues-paying members of the California Faculty Association, 7,618, or 94 percent, voted in favor of authorizing the strike and 510 were opposed.
Several weeks of voting on the 23 CSU campuses culminated in the final tally announced Wednesday. Professors are fighting for higher salaries.
Annual CSU salaries range from $31,848 for a lecturer working nine months to $112,548 for a professor who works 12 months, according to the most recent CSU contract from 2005. This is the first time in the CFA's history that professors have voted to strike.
Wednesday's announcement is the latest move in a 22-month dispute between CSU and CFA leaders over contract negotiations. The vote authorizes the CFA board to determine strike dates.
Faculty members want to close the salary gap between the CSU and compa-rable institutions, and argue that the CSU system has adequate money for the increases. CSU officials say they have offered the CFA a fair salary increase (24.87 percent over the next three years) and can't afford any more.
A state report says CSU faculty are paid 18 percent less than professors at similar universities. Meanwhile, CFA officials point out that the CSU chancellor's office has raised executive salaries by 23 percent and imposed student fee hikes of 94 percent since 2002.
The contract between the CSU and the faculty union expired June 30, 2005, and has been extended several times.
Two-day walkouts planned
At Stanislaus State, 229 faculty, or 97 percent, supported the strike with seven voting no, according to Stephen Filling, business professor and campus CFA president.
"This tells me that the faculty on my campus and across the state don't buy into stories coming out of the (CSU) chancellor's office about the budget," Filling said.
If walkouts happen, they would roll across the CSU campuses and last two days at each site. Many students would miss only one class, Filling said. Strike dates have not been set. Stanislaus State's strikes prob-ably would be scheduled after spring break, which runs April 9-13.
Student leaders encourage people to go to class and stay for at least 15 minutes if their professors don't show up.
Stanislaus State administrators and student leaders stress that if a strike occurs, it will have minimal impact on classes and students.
"If this takes place, we are keeping everyone informed that this campus will remain open for business," said university spokeswoman Kristin Olsen.
Stanislaus State officials have set up an informational hotline at 877-782-6411.
Even with the strikes approved, CFA leaders said they hope to reach an agreement. A mediator recently submitted a fact-finding report to both sides. That document will be made public Sunday and might bring the two groups back to the bargaining table, where they have disagreed bitterly over each other's financial figures.
Student body President Chelsea Minor said she is not worried, but acknowledged that some students are concerned about how the strikes would affect them.
"It's only two days. Their quality of education will not change," said Minor, a junior majoring in political science.
Business marketing junior Aaron Simon-Welch doesn't foresee a problem with his classes or grades but said that some students are upset that they'll miss out on part of an education for which they are paying.
"I feel if the faculty believe they are being undercompensated, they have the right to strike. I support them," he said.
Many professors across the state have warned their students of possible strikes and handed out informational fliers.
Simon-Welch said none of his professors has talked about the turmoil. He learned of the dispute from other students.
Wednesday, CSU officials said the vote isn't representative of all CSU faculty since only about 10,000 out of 23,300 faculty members pay dues and are eligible to vote. It would take about one-quarter of the faculty to authorize the strike, according to a CSU press release.
Of those eligible to vote on the strikes, 83 percent cast ballots in the statewide CFA. Most eligible faculty at Stanislaus State voted, Filling said, but he didn't know Wednesday how many professors pay dues.
Stanislaus State's student senate narrowly passed a resolution Tuesday night supporting the faculty, reversing an earlier position that asked the CFA to leave students out of their dispute with the CSU.
The senate's contentious discussion ended in a 6-5 vote with four abstentions. Minor threatened to veto the resolution but decided against that Wednesday.