The California Faculty Association held an open forum on the Cal State Long Beach campus today addressing strike logistics and faculty and student concerns regarding the potential “Fight for Five” strike set to occur if an agreement with the CSU is not reached.
“We don’t want to go out on strike,” CFA Chapter President Doug Domingo-Foraste said. “We want the chancellor to settle and give us what we deserve.”
If the 5 percent salary increase is not agreed upon, the CFA and its supporters will strike from April 13-15 and 18-19 in what the CFA calls a “limited strike.” The organization said its goal is not to hurt students, it is “to inconvenience” the Cal State campuses in order to make an impact.
“We want to have a presence,” Beka Langen, a field representative for the CFA, said. “But we want to maintain professionalism and help the public understand [our plight].”
In addition to the forum, the CFA said it will release a video explaining different aspects of the potential strike and may create a YouTube channel to inform the public of the step-by-step process.
The negotiation process is currently in the fact-finding phase, in which a panel reviews each party’s proposal and examines documents in order to potentially discuss terms of a consensus. That report is expected to be released mid-March, but an independent investigation done by an officer of the American Association of University Professors, Howard Bunsis, will precede the release.
Bunsis is also an Eastern Michigan University accounting professor, who teaches at the graduate level and specializes in forensic accounting. He will present his financial findings, including how college campuses and university systems distribute state funds, to Cal State Los Angeles on Thursday and Cal Poly Pomona on Friday.
“The data is startling,” Bunsis said in a statement regarding his findings of the CSU.
His report will address how the CSU system spends its money. It will answer big questions, such as whether CSU Chancellor Timothy White can afford to give the 5 percent raise to the CSU faculty, whether the proposed tuition increases are necessary and exactly how much money the CSU spends on “its primary goal: teaching students,” according to a CFA press release.
As the negotiation between the CFA and the CSU continues, more information is expected to circulate, informing the 23 campuses of each party’s intentions.
The CSU is the largest four-year public university system in the United States. What happens here has national effects, the CFA said.