CSU Faculty Votes on Whether to Authorize a Strike

Faculty members at Cal State universities are voting this week on whether to authorize a strike.

Except for a 1.6 percent pay raise in 2014, faculty members haven’t had a raise – even those that were promised – for years.

Cal State San Marcos Associate Professor Darel Engen Ph.D. said the university’s president makes almost $350,000 annually. He, as an associate professor of history with 14 years at CSUSM, earns $75,000. A lecturer with the university for 10 years earns $47,000 annually, he said.

“That’s unconscionable,” Engen said. “That’s shameful.”

Engen said CSU faculty wants a 5 percent raise to make up for increases they were promised and did not receive.

A CSU spokesperson said the faculty is actually asking for a 6.2 percent raise. The university can only afford a 2 percent increase.

She said there is a limited Budget and the CSU system has to take a balanced approach.

The vote will continue on CSU campuses until October 28.

It’s a vote to determine if the union has the support, the authorization, to call a strike.

The union leadership hopes to take a yes vote to a meeting of the CSU Board next month in Long Beach with the message: Faculty members don’t want to strike but they will.
 

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