CCP faculty overwhelmingly approve strike authorization vote

After 14 months of bargaining, faculty and staff at the Community College of Philadelphia have authorized their union negotiating team to call a strike if necessary.

The measure was approved by a 97% majority, said Junior Brainard, copresident of the union. The union did not release vote totals.

“We really had hoped to make significant progress over the weekend,” Brainard said, “but we got offers that failed to address the impact of inflation, the staffing crisis at the college, or SEPTA passes for students.” The union’s core demands remain focused on fair pay, staffing, and the free public transit for students, he said.

» READ MORE: Community College of Philadelphia faculty and staff want improved wages and benefits. They could soon strike.

No strike date has been set and negotiations are continuing. The union is bargaining three separate contracts for faculty, staff, and adjuncts.

Brainard said Sunday that the union has been in contact with the mediator and is ready to continue bargaining.

“We continue to be ready to try to settle this without a strike, but our members have said the current offer is unacceptable,” he said.

The college last month said that it was continuing “to bargain in good faith.”

“Our hope is that negotiations will successfully conclude with the culmination of three fair contracts and no impact on the spring semester, ensuring minimal disruption to our students,” the college said at that time.

The last time the union went on strike was 2007 and classes were canceled.

The two sides have been negotiating since January 2024 for new contracts for its roughly 1,200 members, who include full-time faculty, staff, and adjuncts. Over 30 sessions have been held. The most recent contracts expired Aug. 31.

The minimum starting salary for a full-time faculty member is $56,095 for the academic year, Brainard said, while the average full-time faculty salary is $79,400. Part-time faculty start at $1,671 per credit hour, or approximately $5,000 per course, while staff earn a minimum of $16.48 an hour.

The college administration last month offered a three-year contract with a 5% wage increase the first year and 4% in each of the following two years. The union, which was seeking a four-year contract, had asked for 9% increases in the first two years, followed by 6% in each of the next two years. It also sought raises for part-time faculty to match what adjuncts are making at Temple University, and a minimum wage of $20 an hour for the staff unit.

Brainard said Sunday that the college hasn’t been willing to address pay disparities and that adjuncts at Temple, for example, earn 25% more than those at CCP. Staff are facing similar disparities, he said.

The union also wants to reopen a childcare center on campus that closed during the pandemic, and offer employees and students free transit passes.

The college has been facing a “staffing crisis,” Brainard said in February. While the staff unit has shrunk by roughly 25% since the pandemic, enrollment has increased to nearly pre-pandemic levels, he said. This spring, enrollment is about 12,400 credit students and 1,381 noncredit students, the college said.

The union also wants smaller class sizes and more support for students.

The college said last month that it was able to avoid job cuts and layoffs during the pandemic through attrition, and that while enrollment has been improving since 2022, “the unfortunate reality is that enrollment was in decline for several years before the pandemic.”

“Even now, the college remains significantly smaller than it was at its peak in 2011-2012.”

The college also maintained that faculty numbers “are in line with the negotiated faculty ratios” in the bargaining agreement and that the college hired 20 new faculty members last year.