In a 97% vote on Aug. 25 and 26, the State Center Federation of Teachers (SCFT) authorized a district wide strike if the State Center Community College District did not meet the union’s demands.
For 20 months, the SFCT union has demanded three needs from the district: competitive compensation, SFCT-evaluated contracts for dual enrollment instructors and parity pay for part timers and lecture/lab hours, according to Keith Ford, president of the SCFT.
“There have only been five community college strikes in the entire history of California. The longest one was five days. The average is about one and a half days,” Ford said. “Realistically, even if it went a week, even if it went the full five days because classes are Monday/Wednesdays and Tuesdays/Thursdays, you might miss one week of instruction.”
Ford said he hopes that if a strike were to occur, the district would negotiate to extend the semester by a week or supplement missed classes by online instruction.
“There would really be no impact at all to the students, other than the opportunity to come out and strike with us,” Ford said. “It’s pretty rare for an educational strike to go on a very long time, in the case of community colleges there’s no evidence of it ever having happened.”
Classes at Fresno City, Clovis, Reedley, and Madera Community Colleges will be impacted in the event of a strike if an instructor were participating.
Nicholas Garza is a student representative of Associated Student Government, SCCCD’s student trustee and double major in history and law public policy and society at Fresno City College. He said that as a full time student involved in the campus five to six days a week, a strike would affect him tremendously, mentally and emotionally.
“I’m supposed to graduate in spring, should I just transfer out of this district? You know, like I’m asking those questions to myself especially because I’m on the front lines and I see just how serious the situation is,” Garza said.
Garza said he isn’t allowed in the closed sessions the trustees hold.
“My hope is that the hard conversations are being had amongst the trustees to try and make some sort of an effective change before the end of this semester because it’s got to happen soon,” Garza said.
SCCCD responded to the vote in an email to all employees. “We understand moments like this can feel unsettling, but our work continues with purpose and focus. The District remains committed to supporting student success,” according to SCCCD Executive Director of Strategic Communications Diana Ramirez.
In their response, SCCCD referred to the negotiation proposals dated in May that all full-time and part time faculty salary schedules will be increased in a total percentage increase of 4.87%, in 2026-2027.
In early August, they offered proposals regarding health care for full time and part time faculty of $22,965 annually, effective October of this year through September 30 of 2027.
The SFCT is asking to be paid competitively with West Hills and College of Sequoias, whose faculty at COS make $10,000 more annually, with an additional $6,000 in healthcare, according to Ford.
Ford added that faculty have new medical premiums at the end of September that will increase their expenses by up to $700.
“How can you be an effective teacher when you’re thinking about that, if you’re worried about getting sick because you can’t afford to be sick?,” Ford said.
The strike isn’t guaranteed, but the potential is a turning point for the union.
“We don’t want to strike. We don’t want to harm our students. We don’t want to leave the classroom, we all enjoy teaching,” Ford said.
However, he said the union is resolved to do what they need to do to be paid competitively and to be treated with dignity.
Ford said the union will continue to organize and present their demands to the SCCCD and its negotiating team.
“We hope that this vote is decisive enough to make them come to the table with more of an offer than they had in the past,” Ford said.
If not, Ford said that fact-finding is the next legal step, and if SCCCD does not give them an offer that aligns with their demands, SFCT will be looking at a strike.
Garza said that right now, they are working at the district level to get more information to the students in short film clips or emails.
“From my understanding, students that are aware are getting information from faculty members and maybe other students and then if you don’t really get those, if you don’t get those two pockets of information then you’re pretty much in the dark,” Garza said.