The California Faculty Association Board of Directors voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of holding a strike vote during the weeks of March 5 and March 12.

“We have said all along that we don’t want to strike,” said California Faculty Association president John Travis. “But we will strike if that’s what it takes in order to get a fair settlement.”

This is the first time faculty of the California State University system has ever taken a strike vote.

If the CFA does strike, it will be the biggest strike of higher education in the history of the United States, and of higher education organizing, Travis said.

In early January and early February the CFA held “informational pickets” on 22 of the 23 CSU campuses where thousands of faculty members voiced their grievances with the CSU administrators over salary negotiations.