Union: COCC Employees Vote to Strike, Deadline Set for April 2nd

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The union, representing employees at Central Oregon Community College, have voted to authorize a strike, with a deadline of striking on April 2nd.

According to the Classified Association of Central Oregon Community College, members authorized the strike, concerned about wages.

Scott Dove, an academic technology specialist at COCC and President of CACOCC released a statement saying in part, "COCC’s wages are so out of line with other public employers in our region, that the wages the City of Bend paid staff performing the same work back in 2019 are still higher than the current salaries COCC pays for this work in 2026."

COCC Board Chair Erica Skatvold told KTVZ News:

“We respect the rights of our classified employees to participate in this strike process. COCC has honored Oregon’s collective bargaining framework, making an offer of a 18.45% wage and step increase over 3 years. Our mission at COCC is to serve our community by ensuring equitable and accessible lifelong education to our students. A strike has the potential to significantly impact the College’s day-to-day operations and the many services our students rely on to be successful. We are putting plans in place to maintain essential operations and support services to minimize the disruption to our current and incoming students until we are able to reach an agreement. We remain committed to negotiating as we work toward an agreement that both honors our commitments to our staff, students, and the community.”