Compton : College Strike Authorized

Members of a faculty and staff union at Compton Community College have authorized their negotiators to call for a strike if contract talks with the administration remain at what they regard as an impasse.

Although it is only a preliminary action, the vote sets the stage for what could become the second union walkout in less than three years.

College spokesman Charles Cropsey said administrators don’t think of the talks, which began when the union contract expired last July, “as being stalled.” He said mediation by state officials was “suspended when we came up with our last and best (salary) offer and requested a vote of the membership” on that issue.

The strike authorization, Cropsey said, “seems to us a bit premature, and we can only view it as an attempt to influence us through the menace of a strike.”

Union spokesman Fred Broder said the roughly 200 members of Local 3486 of the American Federation of Teachers want raises of 10%, 11% and 12% over the three-year contract and a provision for binding arbitration. The administration is offering a 5% bonus for the current year, plus the prospect of 6% and 7% increases in base pay over the next two years if money is available.