Members of the Central Oregon Community College Faculty Forum voted nearly unanimously on Wednesday to authorize a strike.
The vote allows the Bend educators to strike if ongoing bargaining is unsuccessful. The union has notified the college that they intend to strike on Oct. 5 if an agreement isn’t reached.
Unlike the potential classified workers strike at Oregon’s seven public universities, a faculty strike is more likely to halt classes.
“This fight is bigger than one contract,” Enrique Farrera, president of the statewide union Oregon Education Association, said in a press release Wednesday. “It is a fight for working people across Central Oregon to earn a fair wage and build a life in the communities they serve.”
Still, the college is taking steps to minimize disruption.
College officials said students should not assume that a class has been canceled unless they receive direct notification from the college. COCC will communicate with students about the status of their individual courses and next steps, administrators said in a press release. College campuses and student services will remain open and available to students.
“We know the possibility of a strike creates uncertainty,” COCC President Greg Pereira said in the college’s press release Thursday. “Our students have worked hard to get to this point, and our priority is helping them continue making progress toward their educational goals.”
FILE - This Aug. 3, 2016, file photo shows the Central Oregon Community College campus with Mount Bachelor on the horizon in Bend, Ore.
Andrew Selsky / AP
If COCC faculty strike, it would be just the second time that’s happened at a community college in Oregon history. The first time was last March, when unions at Portland Community College spent weeks on picket lines before agreeing to a contract.
Central Oregon’s vote comes after nine months of negotiations that have failed to reach a final agreement. College administrators requested mediation in June.
The college and union bargaining teams have reached tentative agreements on several articles within the contract, including details on promotions, discipline and grievances.
The main sticking points include compensation and benefits.
Union officials say their members’ salaries are almost $28,000 below comparable college faculty across the state. COCC’s enrollment falls in the middle of the pack as Oregon’s seventh-largest community college. It had 13,175 students, both credit- and non-credit-seeking, in the 2025-26 school year.
“Our faculty members refuse to rank at the bottom of community college faculty salaries offered statewide, especially given the high cost of living in Bend,” COCCFF Bargaining Chair Mindy Williams said in the union’s release.
“This strike vote sends a clear message: the college’s financial priorities are wrong,” she said. “We know that when faculty thrive, students do, too.”
College officials say they anticipate funding cuts of up to 5% this biennium. As reported by The Bulletin, 5% in cuts would mean a $1.5 million cut per year and would noticeably affect the 2026 fiscal year.
Because of the way the state funds higher education, officials say COCC could feel a bigger financial impact than other schools.
The college’s bargaining team, a week before the vote, reported that they’d presented the faculty forum with six options for salary revisions.
One of them would provide full-time faculty with an average salary increase of 17% in the first year of the contract and would “position COCC’s salary schedule among Oregon community colleges as the third highest at entry level, fourth highest at year ten, and seventh highest at the maximum salary level.”
The bargaining teams are scheduled to continue negotiating this week and next.
