“We held the vote tonight and better than 90 percent of our union that represents 1,200 faculty and staff voted to strike,” union co-President Junior Brainard said Wednesday night. “We don’t have a specific date for when we will walk out, but if we don’t see any progress in the coming days we will be on strike.”
Following this news, the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) administration said in a statement that it is disappointed the federation has made this decision so close to the end of the academic year.
“We fail to see any reasonable basis for a strike and are disappointed in the union’s decision,” the CCP administration said.
A strike would freeze courses for the community college’s 27,800 students, and has the potential of delaying the 2019 spring graduation ceremony, according to The Philadelphia Tribune.
Community College of Philadelphia faculty
CCP faculty and administration have been discussing a new contract for the past several years, mainly focusing on faculty workload and salaries. A majority of the community college’ faculty currently teach four courses a semester. The administration now wants all of its faculty to teach five courses each per semester.
