By snoadmin
After 22 months of negotiations fell apart, Cal State University faculty has started to vote on whether to authorize their union to strike.
The California Faculty Association (CFA) will have their answer Friday when voting ends and their decision on whether to strike against cuts to salaries and classes and other issues is made public.
If the CFA decides to strike, it would result in two-day rolling strikes around the 23 CSU campuses. Most likely beginning in the fall, the two-day strikes would bounce around from campus to campus.The union represents 23,000 CSU professors, librarians, lecturers, coaches and counselors.
The members of the CFA are motioning to strike because they oppose the legislation being pushed upon them by CSU management. The union, whose members have not received raises since 2007, are asking for one percent pay increases for each year of their new contracts.
Faculty also wants more control over class sizes and more financial stability for temporary contracts. However, these demands don’t fit into the CSU budget, which has been hacked down by $750 million this year alone.
As college students in California, we are living in a terrible time for higher education. Besides cutting classes and the outrageous student fees and tuition costs, we may now have to find a way to get along without those who teach us.
This is a double-edged sword. We students support and believe in what the CSU faculty is fighting for. But if there is a strike, it will hinder our education.
We have lived through the furlough days, which made it hard for professors to get all the material into a semester-long class.
Now, there is a possibility that the whole campus will shutdown for two days – possibly more. If the faculty is taking time to prepare for the strike, it will likely draw focus away from the classroom.
The faculty’s wish to provide better education for students brought about this whole strike. However, going on strike will lead to the opposite of what they have been fighting for.
It will also be frustrating for students who have seen their tuition rise dramatically over their college careers to lose two days of education they’re paying for.
There is also the question of how effective this strike could be. Faculty can prove their point by striking for two days, but that will not necessarily get them what they want.
The problem is that there is no money top support what the faculty wants.
There is no way for any side to win in this situation. No matter what, there is a very small chance that the faculty will get what they want if they strike.
Either way, we as students are the ones who will suffer the most. Without a say in tuition, class sizes and who will be teaching us, it really makes us feel insignificant.
At the end of the day, we are paying for these classes. Classes we may not be able to go to if the faculty strikes.
