Why a Strike?

Many in the College Community, students, faculty and staff, are having trouble making sense of the strike so I will try to clear some things up right off. It certainly would be easier to understand if it were as simple as the Unions want Saturdays off for example, or the Administration wants to slash salaries, etc. However, this is a more nuanced situation but easily explained.
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This is the Short Edited Version:
There are two pies, health care and salaries. In negotiations, the Unions agreed to reductions in their health care policy which means less coverage and more money out-of-pocket. The understanding was Unions give a bit on health care in order to maintain salary increases at levels already in place since the last contract. The Administration decided in the eleventh hour, with its "best and final offer" to cut salary increases as well across the board to levels below those in place since the last contract for all three Unions.
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The is the Super Duper Short Edited Version:
Two pies, the Administration wants a slice of both. The Unions must maintain what little they already have, therefore there is no choice for the Unions but to strike.
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The Longer Version:

The three Unions (Full Time Faculty, Part Time Faculty and Classified Staff) have been negotiating new contracts since they expired last August. As with any negotiations, the Unions and the Administration had a wish list and traded back and forth for months. What it came down to in the end was that the administration feels that the Unions should pay premiums for health care citing the rising cost of health care. The Unions, not ignorant of the challenges of rising health care costs, countered this proposal by agreeing to cut the services on their current Blue Cross health care package in order to avoid paying "premiums" which is now standard at many workplaces. In the end this amounts to $500,000 a year of savings for the college in health care costs. This was a big concession for the Unions and not a popular one in the ranks. With starting salaries for Teachers at $36,000 and for Staff $17,000, traditionally many at CCP have accepted the reality of low wages in return for the security of great health benefits. Now their once comprehensive coverage is not so comprehensive and it is no longer "Free" health care by any means - the new policy comes with significant increases in co-pays and out-of-pocket expenses for faculty.

See, that was not too long and complicated.
A big issue is of course money.
A Community College Professor, even those who have Doctoral Degrees can start as low as $37,000 and a member of the Classified Staff, those who maintain and keep the day to day operations of CCP running, can start as low as $17,000.
A big issue for the Unions is how the college chooses to spend its money.
They have recently launched a $1.5 million branding campaign and have hired 60 new administrators since the last contract. We cannot quote their starting salaries because the Administration of Community College of Philadelphia are hiding behind a law which protects their finances from public scrutiny. This is very suspicious. Why at an institution that takes public money can we not see how the money is spent?

There is a good back and forth between students and a faculty member at Metroblog.