COCC Classified Workers Plan to Strike April 2

Classified workers at Central Oregon Community College have voted to strike in April. The two sides have been unable to come to an agreement over wages.

News release submitted Friday, March 20 by the Classified Association of Central Oregon Community College:

With 93% participation from membership, the Classified Association of Central Oregon Community College (CACOCC) has overwhelmingly authorized the second-ever strike of a Community College in Oregon, and first-ever strike of Central Oregon Community College, in a bid to end poverty wages at one of the richest colleges in Oregon. The union has sent 10 day strike notice to COCC, and will walk out on April 2 if COCC continues to refuse to end poverty wages.

“Central Oregon Community College is a leader in low wages,” said Scott Dove, an academic technology specialist at COCC and President of CACOCC. “25% of classified staff at COCC currently experience acute food insecurity because of COCC’s poverty wages; 78% of COCC classified staff made under a living wage in 2025. Over half of COCC’s custodians earn less than the MINIMUM starting salary for a custodian working for the City of Bend. 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. The Chief Financial Officer of COCC has said numerous times that they can afford to lift all COCC employees out of poverty; this is an issue of lack of will, and lack of respect for the contributions classified employees perform every day that keep our college running.”

The rampant poverty wages at COCC – a college that targets reserves of over 29%, more than three times the standard, and sits in the most expensive community in Oregon – have led to a mass exodus of classified staff from the college. In the past year alone, 1 out of 5 classified educators left the college, creating turnover far above industry standard that disrupts education for students every day.

The shamefully low poverty wages at COCC are a long-known issue: in 2023, COCC conducted a wage study that found that a vast amount of classified positions were dramatically underpaid compared to similar employers. Instead of rectifying this when the wage study was completed, COCC opted instead to leave classified educators in poverty, and instead raise Administrator salaries by an average of 16% the following year. COCC administrators – already the highest paid employees at the college – have had an average of a whopping 26% across the board raise since 2023, while classified employees are forced to rely on food banks and temporary housing to survive.

COCC’s Chief Financial Officer has acknowledged in multiple meetings that COCC has the ability to meet staff’s demands of living wages immediately. COCC’s refusal to end poverty wages at the college, when by their own admission they could immediately, reflects an authoritarian desire for control and systemic disrespect for the labor performed by classified educators, not any economic inability to provide living wages.

Unless COCC President Greg Pereira thinks better of his choice to force strike less than one year into his job, COCC classified staff will join Portland Community College faculty and staff and be on strike alongside them starting at 5am on April 2.

This story is based on submitted information and has not been verified by our news team.