Cal State faculty authorizes walkout as talks with administrators stall

The faculty in the Cal State University system has overwhelmingly authorized a strike if a labor agreement isn’t reached by the end of the month, union officials said Wednesday.

The vote, which passed with 94% approval among about 8,000 union voters, comes after nearly two years of contract negotiations between system administrators and the California Faculty Assn., which stalled over salary increases.

The association represents about 24,000 faculty, librarians, counselors and coaches statewide.

A series of two-day rolling strikes across the system’s 23 campuses could begin in April and last into May, union officials said.

The action would be the first systemwide labor strike for the largest four-year university system in the country.

Strike voting started March 5 and continued for two weeks. On March 15, a neutral fact-finding report was released to both sides, analyzing the labor disagreements and providing nonbinding recommendations.

After a 10-day blackout period prohibiting walkouts ends Sunday, the Cal State faculty has the legal right to strike.

“The California State University Board of Trustees and the California State University administration have to recognize that we’re together on this,” union President John Travis said. “We’re a faculty that’s fed up, and we’re a faculty that’s ready to walk off the job.” He said that despite the authorization vote, “we do not want to strike. We want to achieve a settlement.”

About 100 students, faculty members and union officials gathered Wednesday at Cal State Dominguez Hills to hear the results of the vote, holding signs that read “My [heart] for Teaching Doesn’t Pay the Rent” and “Enough Is Enough.”

Susan Needham, a Dominguez Hills anthropology professor, invited her class to witness what she called a historic moment. “Our interests are the same interests. Faculty and students want quality education, and we need the resources and time and support to do that.”

But some students voiced concern.

“I’m studying to be a teacher, so I’d like to say I’m for the teachers. But as a student, it could affect my graduation,” said Kandee Johnson, 38, a senior in liberal studies at Dominguez Hills. “That means I have to go another year, another term.”

Union officials say they decided to use two-day rolling strikes to minimize the effect on the more than 400,000 students systemwide. They said the strikes would not occur during finals.

In September, union and administration officials reached an impasse over salary increases. When mediation failed, the fact-finding stage began.

The previous contract expired in July 2005 and has been renewed on a monthly basis.

Both sides agree that a roughly 25% raise over the four-year contract would be fair, but union officials say the administration’s offer was “virtual money” with “lots of strings and contingencies” that would reduce the actual amount of the raises. They say they would take a true 25% increase if it were offered.

Union officials argue that administrators and executives have received pay raises and perks while faculty have been told there wasn’t enough money to increase their salaries.

Cal State spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow said the university system is trying to close the “salary gap” that all employees in the system are facing because of a constrained budget.

The average starting salary for a full-time assistant professor is about $55,000, according to Travis, roughly 14% behind other institutions.

The university system is still trying to recoup more than $500 million that was cut from its budget since 2002, Potes-Fellow said. Faculty salaries represent about $1 billion of the system’s $4.2-billion budget.

If the strikes should occur, Potes-Fellow said the university system will try to maintain a campus life that is “as normal as possible.”

Less than half the university system’s faculty members belong to the California Faculty Assn., and Potes-Fellow said the university system does not expect all faculty to strike.

The vote results came one day after the California Faculty Assn. released a report that said the Cal State system had more than $1.25 billion in cash reserves, enough to cover the divisive salary issue.

But university officials said the money was “already encumbered” -- to repay bonds for building university facilities.

“The CSU continues to focus on the fact-finding [report],” Potes-Fellow said. “We are considering our options and we remain committed to reaching an agreement.”

tami.abdollah@latimes.com