By: Anthony Orrico and Maya-Claire Glenn
Members of the California State University faculty and staff rallied outside the chancellor’s office in Long Beach on Tuesday, fighting for their contract demands to be met.
With a faculty strike looming, the Board of Trustees presented the California Faculty Association with a final labor contract offer before the fact finder delivers it’s report.
According to CFA President Charles Toombs, the fact-finding stage is completed and they are waiting for the fact-finder to release the report. Once the report is released, there is a ten-day blackout period where neither side negotiates, but the CSU can return to the bargaining table.
After the ten-day period, the CFA has the legal right to go on strike.
Toombs indicated the union’s willingness to go on strike, with the crowd repeatedly chanting, “Shut this shit down.”
“When we go on strike there’s no instruction, you have no school with no classes, you have no school with all the research and professional development that we do,” Toombs said. “So the message today to the Board of Trustees; this is your last chance. You have got to make major substantial movement on this proposal or we’re shutting it down.”
According to Toombs, the CSU’s most recent offer was the same as all their previous offers of a 5% salary increase over the next academic year.
Student organizations from across the CSU system attended in solidarity with the CFA and Teamsters 2010. Many students said if CFA were to go on strike, they would honor their picket lines and not go to campus.
“I live on campus. So I wouldn’t even live in my dorm for that time that they’re striking because that’s incorrect. I’m not gonna cross the picket line,” said Elizabeth Flores, a CSU student and member of Students for Quality Education.
The Teamsters 2010, who represent about 1,100 skilled trade workers, have announced they will be striking on Nov. 14. Toombs said the CFA will stand with them in any legal way they can.
California State Senator Lena A. Gonzalez, who represents Long Beach, attended the rally and spoke to the crowd to show her support for the union.
“Long Beach, as you know, is a union town and I come to you not just as a state senator. I am a CSU Long Beach graduate. We cannot stand for the CSU chancellor telling us no on 12%. I will shut that shit down with you,” Gonzalez said.
The CFA authorized a strike vote last week and is currently asking for a 12% salary increase over the next year, a paid semester of parental leave and an increase the salary floor for their lowest-paid members, among other things.