"...faculty labor unrest nearing the boiling point..."

Front page article in the Chron today details, among many other things, the outrageous blame-the-victims speech of SFSU Pres Corrigan, as well as smart responses from SFSU and CFA faculty leadership. It's charming to read Corrigan's accusations of faculty "bullying" CSU Chancellor Reed by appearing at several of Reed's public appearances with creative and forceful statements of protest, including mock wanted posters and a mock warrant for his arrest when he appeared at a conference on criminal justice.

That Corrigan could write to "his faculty" to characterize the tactics used by the faculty union seems at the very least like a dubious if not unfair labor practice.

Still, there are few things more energizing--inspiring--than joining with one's colleagues to affirm one's place in the world--and at the bargaining table. Even those of us who have suffered through great collective battles that ended in defeat know the joys in the battle--in the good fight.

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CSU to consider 10% higher fees, presidential perk
Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 13, 2007

With faculty labor unrest nearing the boiling point, the California State University system's governing board is expected to push two financial hot buttons this week: increases in student fees and a six-figure going-away payment to a campus president.

The two issues go to the heart of faculty members' anger at CSU's top executives, whom they criticize as being quick to reward themselves with perks and higher pay but slow to recognize the concerns of the state university's professors and lecturers, who last saw a salary increase -- 3.5 percent -- in 2003.

As the union representing 23,000 faculty members threatens to go on strike, students have voiced their own angst over a proposed 10 percent tuition hike that the university's Board of Trustees plans to consider today in Long Beach, raising the possibility that the trustees' meeting could melt down like the one in November, when student and faculty protests forced an early adjournment....
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