CSU faculty strike vote gets under way
Salinas Californian 3/6/07
A CSU system strike would be the largest in the history of American higher education.
By March 15, unionized faculty in the 23-campus state university system will have decided whether to strike if 22 months of contract negotiations end without a resolution in about three weeks.
About 10,100 instructors pay dues to the California Faculty Association out of a total 22,500 in the system. At the 4,000-student CSUMB, about half of the roughly 300 faculty are union members. The campus, now 12 years old, is the system's second-youngest.
At least fifty percent plus one member, or about 5,051 faculty, are needed to approve a strike, which would be a first for the 405,000-student system.
"There are enough faculty members who are upset enough who are willing to go the extra mile to organize the vote and strike," said Rafael Gomez, a CSUMB Spanish professor and CFA chapter president. "We've never done this before."
At issue are terms for a new contract - the last one expired in summer 2005 - through 2010. The university system's last offer would amount to a 24 percent salary increase when compounded over three years.
Union leaders, however, argue that the CSU system's offer is built on unreliable sources such as discretionary pay, step increases already promised and assumptions the state will boost the system's budget.
The CFA wants a 25 percent increase over four years cut directly out of the system's $4 billion budget instead of contingent funds. According to the union, the average salary of a tenure-track CSU faculty member is about $70,000, not enough to stay competitive with other learning institutions or pressures to enter the private sector.
CSUMB, however, does not approach the systemwide average because the majority of its faculty consists of lecturers, Gomez said. Lecturers typically do not work full-time, and many are not eligible for benefits.
Noncompetitive salaries, Gomez said, worsen the problem by making instructors unable to afford local housing. He said faculty have been known to commute from Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco.
"We feel we are doing a good job," Gomez said. "But we are not getting what we need: a salary that gives (faculty) an opportunity to live in this community."
CSU Spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow said the system is awaiting the results of a joint fact-finding report by the two parties overseen by a third-party mediator. Once that report and its recommendations are released, the parties have the option of abiding by its terms or rejecting it and continuing negotiations.
The report, Potes-Fellow said, is expected to be released to the two sides within a week.
But the union has set a timeline to stage a walk out if an agreement is not reached by the end of March.
While the system is trying to avoid that situation, Potes-Fellow said officials don't expect a majority of teachers to strike.
"If they get that vote, that doesn't mean the entire faculty will be striking, but at least 5,000 will," she said, referring to the number needed to authorize a strike. "We hope that the disruption will be minimal."
Faculty at Hartnell College in Salinas, part of the California Community College system, held a five-day strike last fall after contentious contract negotiations dragged on for more than two years.