California Faculty Association chapter presidents, faculty members, bargaining chairs, and supporters gathered together on the San Jose State University campus to await the results of a vote to authorize concerted action Wednesday morning.
When the announcement came that the vote passed, giving allowance for a potential strike to further the “Fight for Five” campaign, applause and chants of “we don’t want to, but we will” erupted from the audience.
CFA members voted 94.4 percent in favor of the concerted actions, said CFA Statewide President Jennifer Eagan.
She maintained that the overwhelming majority vote stood as a testament to CFA’s dedication to their end of salary negotiations.
“Faculty has never been angrier, and rightfully so,” Eagan said. “94 percent of us don’t agree on anything, usually.”
CSU responded to the strike clearance with a statement that said, “The CSU remains committed to the collective bargaining process and reaching a negotiated agreement with the California Faculty Association.”
Before the bargaining process concludes, a period of fact finding, in early December, will be the CFA’s last attempt at persuading CSU to concede to a 5 percent general salary increase.
“Fact finding hearings are currently scheduled for Nov. 23 and Dec. 7,” the CSU statement said. “The approval of the strike vote gives CFA’s leadership the authority to initiate a strike or other concerted activities in the event that the parties do not reach an agreement at the conclusion of the statutory impasse procedure.”
CFA and the California State University system have been locked in salary negotiations for the majority of the year and have yet to reconcile the gap between CFA’s 5 percent salary increase request and the CSU’s offer of a 2 percent increase.
CFA launched the “Fight for Five” campaign as a way to rally support for its salary request, and it has maintained a stance of doing whatever is necessary to receive the wage increase.
“No one takes a strike vote lightly,” Eagan said. “But faculty is motivated to change this course…we are powerful.”
CFA members believe that the current salary being offered to faculty keeps them in a lower economic standing than they deserve for their work.
Bargaining chair for CFA Kevin Weir echoed the sentiment as he took the stage in SJSU’s rally room to speak on the economic status of faculty and why the 5 percent is so needed.
“Two percent doesn’t even keep up with inflation or begin to dig us out of the hole we’ve been in for the last 10 years,” Weir said.
This marks the fourth strike authorization to be passed since 2007. The only instance in which an authorized vote materialized into campus walkouts, though, was seen on the Easy Bay and Dominguez Hills campuses in 2011.
Strike plans have yet to be made by CFA, but “whether or not [it] does go down hinges on Chancellor White’s decision,” Eagan said.
If the strike were to materialize into a reality, CFA representatives suggested it would be of a far larger scale than the 2011, spanning more campuses and lasting longer than a day.
The CSU system recently received an additional $97 million in funding from Gov. Jerry Brown and has said the additional money “enables the CSU to hire more staff, academic advisors and tenure-track faculty” in a budget press release.
On Nov. 17, the fourth anniversary of the 2011 strike, CFA members, labor and community allies, CSU students and other supporters will be holding a demonstration at the CSU offices in downtown Long Beach.
Eagan said it would serve as a “preview of all things to come.”