A picket for higher wages

By Kirstie Hettinga
The Collegian

Eileen Walsh knows it will cost several thousand dollars to move her 17-year-old daughter to college. Walsh said she and other faculty members in the California State University system have not been earning a fair cost of living rate for several years. While Walsh said she understands fluctuation in the economy, she believes it is time for the administration to catch up.

“It’s not getting any cheaper to live in California,” Walsh said. With a salary increase, Walsh said she could live in “a little more comfort, a little less anxiety.” Walsh said her anxiety is exacerbated by the looming costs of preparing her daughter to go to school. “I’m looking ahead to just getting her started,” Walsh said.

Walsh, a lecturer in the history department at Fresno State, was among nearly 50 faculty members who participated in a demonstration against the CSU system’s salary proposal.

Negotiations between the CSU System and the California Faculty Association reached an impasse in September 2006. The organizations are currently in a fact-finding process.

In a statement from the office of the chancellor, the CSU System said it offered a 24.5 percent salary increase to be paid over three years. However, members of the demonstration said the public is being misinformed.

Diane Blair, a professor in the communication department, said the proposal offered by the CSU System comes with “strings attached” that actually reduce the salary increase to about 14.7 percent.

Blair said the proposal is “not a decent cost-of-living raise.”

While salary is at the forefront of negotiations between the CSU and faculty, other areas of disagreement include the Faculty Early Retirement Program, parking fees and parental leave. The CFA would like to see maternity and paternity leave extended to 90 days, while the CSU would restrict leave to 30 days.

The early retirement program offers faculty members a chance to continue teaching part time while they transition into retirement. The CFA would like to maintain the current maximum participation period of five years, while the CSU System would reduce the duration of the program to four years.

Demonstrators carried picket signs with slogans including, “I don’t want to strike but I will” and “one voice, strength in union.”

The pickets circled the fountain and marched between the Free Speech Area and Thomas Administration building.

Mike Clifton, a lecturer in the English department, said “All we want is a fair contract,” and that ideally, negotiations would not interrupt classes, but there are faculty members who are willing to strike if necessary.

According to Clifton, if the CSU pushes the faculty association against a wall, they will have no choice but to strike. Clifton said, “The trustees are being weirdly hostile.”

Clifton also said the CFA is not the one who left the negotiating table.

Blair said a strike would happen if the administration imposes the CSU’s contract on the faculty.

However, the CFA would do what it could to lessen the impact on students.

“We don’t think the students should be punished for the administration’s bad decisions,” Blair said.

If a strike happens, Blair said it would most likely be a rolling strike, in which the different campuses of the CSU System would take turns striking on certain days to reduce its effect on students.

According to Will Ward, a staff organizer for the CFA, demonstrations such as Wednesday’s have been taking place on all the CSU campuses. “It’s a very aggressive campaign,” he said. Ward also said he was surprised by the number of faculty members who indicated they were prepared to strike.

“The frustration is clearly boiling to the surface,” Ward saidDespite the efforts to reduce the impact of a strike on students, there are other ways students are being affected. Darnell Austin, a faculty member of the industrial technology department, said his school had been searching for new professors but several top candidates were unwilling to join the Fresno State faculty because of the disparity in salary between the CSU and other campuses.

“If we can’t get quality faculty, students are going to suffer,” Austin said.

Some onlookers were unsure what to make of the demonstration. Sukh Singh, a junior chemistry major, said he knew the demonstration was going to happen because a professor had told him about it. However, Singh said he thought the rally was a strike. “It has the appearance of a strike,” Singh said.

Janet Cranfield, also a chemistry major said, “I think they have the right to strike.”

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