I did not think it possible, but Gail Brooks has sunk to a new low. Her approach seems to come from that old saying “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bulls**t.”

In her recent email to faculty she seeks to blame the breakdown of negotiations with CFA on CFA. Nothing could be further from the truth.

1. The CSU continues to adhere to its position that faculty receive NO pay increase in the first year of the contract with “reopeners” (read: negotiation for cuts in salary and benefits) in the second two years of the contract. And the Chancellor’s Office robs us of the right to strike if pay and benefit cuts are imposed by the administration!

As in her previous messages to us and to the public, she berates faculty for being money-hungry. What are we asking for? A one-percent increase over each of three years. How dare we?!

And what about Ms. Brooks? In her first full year with the CSU (2008) she made $241,000. In 2011 she made $271,000. Someone has been getting regular pay raises. It is no wonder she is such an advocate for raising the pay of campus presidents: Can the head of HR really make more than a campus president? No way! How will she get another raise until the pay of the campus presidents is increased?!

2. Gail Brooks says: “It appears to CSU that the only substantive issue left to be resolved is funding for the CFA President and Political Action position’s release time. At some point the parties will have to continue these talks, and the issues on the table will be exactly the same. CSU remains willing to continue the negotiation process at any time in the belief that dialogue is the best way of resolving the differences of the parties.”

This is an attempt to divide and conquer. Make it look like it is all about the parasitic chapter presidents. As you can imagine I am using my course release to sip Chardonnay and listen to Wagner operas while I laugh at the dupes who are teaching! You fools!

The fact is that the California Taxpayer is paying Gail Brooks over a quarter-million dollars a year to advocate against the union; AND they taxpayers are paying a consulting firm about $8,000 a day to try and destroy the union. It seems only fair that the faculty be able to compensate those who are fighting on their behalf. The Chancellor, his hatchet woman, and his consultants are seeking to disarm the union as a first step toward destroying it.

Do not be fooled by the tactics of the Chancellor’s Office. Gail Brooks’ memos are meant to divide, disarm, and destroy our union.

It is time to focus the argument back where it needs to be: on the faculty and students who are at the heart of the CSU.