IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Faculty at Cal State University San Bernardino continued to vote Tuesday on whether to approve a strike.
The vote, which is being conducted at all 23 California State University campuses, is scheduled to last through Oct. 28, said Marcia Marx, president of the local chapter of the California Faculty Association.
An estimated 26,000 Cal State faculty members, including approximately 600 at Cal State San Bernardino, are eligible to vote, either by ballot or online.
Union members have been considering a strike for several months. They are asking for a five percent raise, three percent more than the Cal State system is offering.
An impasse in the dispute has been declared, and both sides are now “fact-finding,” meaning both sides are researching and attempting to bolster their case in anticipation of possible contract negotiations.
Faculty members need a pay increase that would make their pay comparable to other universities and that keeps up with cost-of-living increases, Marx said.
“We believe that five percent is a reasonable request,” said Marx, who teaches sociology and ethnic studies at Cal State San Bernardino. “We’ve had only had two small raises in the past two years.”
Should faculty members vote to strike, a lengthy process would ensue that could end in CSU officials making their last, best and final offer to the union. It’s too early in the process to predict when a strike might occur, Marx said.
