CSU faculty prepare for potential strike this spring

The California State University faculty union will bring teaching to a halt at all 23 campuses in April – an unprecedented move for the 470,000-student university system – unless an agreement over salaries is reached before then, the union announced Monday.

“Faculty are finding it very hard to exist, especially in San Francisco”, said Priyanvada Abeywickrama, an associate professor of English at San Francisco State University.

A 2 percent salary bump would cost CSU about $32.8 million, whereas the CFA’s proposal would be $102 million, according to Toni Molle, CSU’s director of public affairs.

The strike, set for April 13-15 and April 18-19, would be the first systemwide work stoppage in CSU history.

Officials from the CSU could immediately be reached for comment. CFA held a one-day walkout in November 2011 at Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson and at Cal State East Bay. The collective bargaining process continues, and a strike can not be conducted until the end of the process. CFA is calling for an additional 1.2 percent increas for some faculty.

According to the statement, the CFA has been fighting for a 5% general salary increase for all faculty members, but CSU’s management offered a 2% increase instead.

CSU has about 47,000 faculty and staff. Not all are members of the union.

“This is a historic strike, if it happens”, Eagan said. An outside mediator is compiling a fact-finding report; the union can not go on strike until 10 days after the document is issued. The 5 percent raises alone would cost $82 million. The CSU administration argued the CFA’s demand could wind up taking up half the system’s most recent budget, The Sacramento Bee reported.

Faculty members tightened their belts during the Great Recession “in the hopes that when the good times came, we’d be able to negotiate a good contract”, Eagan said.