California Faculty Association President Lillian Taiz urged Cal State University faculty Wednesday to authorize the union’s board of directors to call a one-day strike, if negotiations between the CFA and CSU continue to falter.
The CFA president also asked faculty to join union members at Cal State East Bay and Cal State Dominguez Hills for “concerted action” on Nov. 17 and for “informational picketing” at their respective campuses on either Nov. 8 or 9.
Depending on what union members want, “concerted action” could be anything from additional “informational picketing” to “a strike that could shut down campuses,” said Brian Ferguson, a CFA spokesman.
The CFA has never called a strike but it has “come close,” according to the CFA spokesman.
Taiz addressed CSU faculty members across the 23-campus system via webcast at a CFA “e-summit.”
The Cal State Long Beach CFA streamed the president’s address at the Karl Anatol Center but Daily 49er reporters were not allowed access.
“These points list the escalating actions that experience tells us we must take if we want to win for our profession, our students and our state,” Taiz said, urging union members to support picketing and striking efforts, according to a transcript of the speech provided by the CFA.
A major sticking point addressed by the CFA president was faculty pay raises.
The current CFA contract, ratified in June 2006 and extended past its June 2010 expiration, includes pay raises but stipulates renegotiation of these raises based on economic conditions.
The CSU utilized this renegotiation clause to block faculty pay raises for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years, citing crippling cuts in state support.
Although the CSU has faced more than $1 billion in cuts since 2008, two neutral fact-finders have ruled in favor of the CFA, asking the CSU to partially reinstate the faculty pay raises.
One ruled in favor of the 2008-09 increases and another in favor of the 2009-10 increases.
“During a year in which the CSU is grappling with a $650 million mid-year cut, the CSU’s priorities must remain resolutely focused on serving as many students as possible while retaining as many jobs as possible,” wrote Bill Candela, a CSU collective bargaining director, in a dissent to the second fact-finder’s report.
In her Wednesday address, the CFA president blamed much of the negotiating problems on CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed.
“By now, you are aware that the chancellor seized on the tanking economy to implement his long-dreamed of changes to our system,” Taiz said. “Reed is working hard to implement his vision of a highly paid corporate management and a weak work force of instructors.”
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