Cal Poly students brace for strike as faculty gear up for historic CSU walkout

Cal Poly is bracing for a weeklong faculty strike that will effectively shut down classes and other educational activities across campus starting Monday.

The California Faculty Association, which represents 29,000 members across 23 California State University campuses, is poised to hit the picket lines after talks with the CSU administration ended abruptly last week. Shortly after, the CSU announced faculty would receive a 5% raise effective Jan. 31, well below the 12% requested by the CFA and not enough to prevent the walkout.

“We hope to shut campus down,” California Faculty Association-San Luis Obispo president Lisa Kawamura said of how the labor action will affect Cal Poly. “This will be the largest strike in higher education in the nation, in the country — in our history.”

In San Luis Obispo, the work stoppage will occur in the third week of the 10-week winter quarter, grinding learning to a halt. At many other campuses on the semester system, the strike is timed to the first week of classes.

Strike still looms at Cal Poly after CSU cancels bargaining sessions with faculty union

The walkout likely will leave more than 21,000 Cal Poly students on their own to keep up with their classwork, depending on how many faculty members participate.

Kawamura said that faculty including counselors, professors, lecturers and coaches will join the picket lines, canceling classes and work obligations during the strike.

But many have created assignments in Canvas — an application that Cal Poly faculty members use to manage classes — for students to work on during the strike, multiple students and faculty members told The Tribune.

Strike will eliminate a tenth of quarter’s class time

With no classes to attend, many students said they don’t intend on going to campus.

Fourth-year biology major Natham Magana said the strike was an “important burden.”

“We are still paying tuition full price and we are missing one tenth of our (learning) time (this quarter),” Magana said. “However, the cost of living, especially in San Luis County is insane, and their wages need to reflect that.”

Magana said that his professors told their students they would be canceling classes, pushing due dates back and assigning work through Canvas. Magana and other students have said that professors have even told students not to send emails to them during the strike as they will not be responding.

Fourth-year business administration major Joshua Gorospe said that he feels many students are taking the wrong impression of the strike.

“People are viewing it as a free vacation,” Gorospe said. “People aren’t understanding why they are going on strike. It’s just like, ‘Oh, no school!’”

Gorospe said that he supported the faculty going on strike but reiterated Magana’s fears about what canceling classes will do to his education.

Electrical engineering Professor Vladimir Prodanov called the strike a “necessary evil” and similarly lamented the fact that he would lose 12% of his courses’ content. Prodanov teaches three classes, all of which will be canceled during the strike.

Prodanov, who is a member of a faculty search committee, said trying to attract candidates to Cal Poly is difficult considering the low salaries the CSU offers entry level faculty.

“I know that while people are interested in being part of the university, they are very much concerned about their salaries,” Prodanov said.

Prodanov himself took a 50% salary cut when he started teaching at Cal Poly 15 years ago, from $140,000 to $70,000.

Prodanov said faculty in his department support the union and intend to strike.

Cal Poly administration weighs in

For its part, Cal Poly has that the campus will be open and that students should not assume that their classes, appointments or athletics will be canceled, according to a news release put out by the university.

The administration urged students to check with their instructors to fully understand their obligations.

Kawamura said that striking faculty and supporting community members will be picketing across roadways and major thoroughfares around campus.

The university warned that picketing may cause traffic delays.

In an email to Cal Poly parents and supporters, Vice President of Student Affairs Keith Humphrey noted that the faculty strike was expected to occur at the same time as a planned work stoppage by the Teamsters, which represents skilled trades employees.

“Both CFA and Teamsters have demanded a general salary increase that would result in cuts to programs and potentially layoffs on our campuses,” Humphrey said. “Despite this, we are committed to fairly compensating our employees in a financially sustainable manner.”

The Teamsters and the CSU have since reached an agreement, and its strike was called off.

Humphrey said university operations such as campus dining and operation of residence halls would continue as normal, and he noted that the faculty strike “should not interfere with students’ ability to complete their courses and graduate on time.”

“There may be picket lines on campus. I acknowledge it can feel uncomfortable to cross a picket line,” he added. “You are welcome to choose an entrance to campus that does not have one. If asked, please know that you are not obligated to provide a member of a picket line with your name or any other information.”

Why CSU faculty members are striking

The faculty union is striking systemwide after faculty members held one-day walkouts at four campuses in December.

Then, the CFA and CSU were slated to meet for four days of negotiations last week, before the CSU walked out on Tuesday and canceled the remainder of the scheduled talks, announcing a 5% raise.

The CFA reopened four broad sections of their contract in May, demanding a 12 percent salary increase, more manageable workloads, more counselors for students, the right to counsel when approached by campus police, more paid leave, and more lactation rooms and gender neutral bathrooms and changing rooms on campuses.

“Negotiations goes two ways,” said CFA-SLO president Lisa Kawamura. “There’s give and there’s take, and when all you’re doing is taking, that’s not negotiation.”

Kawamura said that faculty are fed up with the CSU and “can’t afford not to strike.”

The CFA represents professors, coaches, librarian, campus dining employees, doctors, nurses and more.

Faculty members are encouraged by the union not to cross picket lines and to only come to campus if they intend to picket. Kawamura added that she has heard nothing but enthusiasm for the strike from faculty.

Teamsters call off CSU, Cal Poly strike

Teamsters Local 2010, the union which represents 1,100 skilled trades people across the 23 CSU campuses called off their strike this week after reaching a “historic agreement” with the CSU on Friday.

The union represents approximately 80 Cal Poly workers.

The union, which was slated to strike alongside the CFA, won a retroactive 5% general salary increase, salary steps and many other provisions it had been bargaining for with the CSU over the past three years.

“We achieved this historic agreement by standing together as Teamsters — and in solidarity with our sister unions at CSU — to take powerful action like CSU has never seen before,” secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 2010 Jason Rabinowitz said in a news release.