Cal State University faculty and skilled trades workers have called for a systemwide strike across all 23 campuses from Monday, Jan. 22 to Friday, Jan. 26 after the California Faculty Association and the university failed to reach a contract agreement this week.
There will be no class, counseling, coaching or library services, effectively shutting down the universities entirely for that week, said Meghan O’Donnell, CFA associate vice president of lecturers.
Teamsters Local 2010, which represents about 1,100 technicians, mechanics and other skilled trades workers, have said they will join CFA on the picket line in solidarity.
CFA, which represents some 29,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches, has been bargaining with the CSU for eight months. Here’s what they’re asking for:
- 12% pay raises that keep ahead of inflation
- Pay equity for their lowest-paid faculty
- Manageable workloads that allow for more support and engagement with students
- Improvements to students’ mental health services
- Expanding paid parental leave to a full semester
- Accessible lactation spaces and changing rooms
“I think a lot of what we hear from management is that we are being really unreasonable,” said O’Donnell. “But the reality is these are really reasonable expectations that I think anybody would have when they come to work.”
After two days of meeting with CFA in Sacramento for a week dedicated to bargaining, the university announced today that it has settled on providing all faculty, librarians, counselors and coaches a 5% general salary increase on top of bumping department chairperson pay (an unspecified amount) and “allowing for modest parking fee increases.” For the university’s part, the offer marked the end of negotiations, as all future bargaining dates were canceled.
According to O’Donnell, CSU did not give any counteroffers and walked away from the bargaining table after CFA had passed counterproposals for the week and were willing to move closer to the middle.
“The message that came out today from the chancellor’s office has really angered and outraged faculty even more than they already were,” said O’Donnell. “It’s pretty disappointing, but we’re prepared to shut down the system to win what we rightly deserve.”
This move comes after a factfinding process in which a neutral, state-appointed “factfinder” met with both parties to identify issues and produced a report proposing middle-ground resolutions, to which the CSU mostly agreed with.
In December, the CSU said in a statement it was willing to expand paid leave, alleviate workloads and offer a 15% salary increase for faculty over three years, among other things, but has since seemingly changed its mind.
“We believe that the factfinder’s report offers many thoughtful recommendations and a pathway to resolving all of the open issues,” said Leora Freedman, CSU vice chancellor for human resources. “CSU is prepared to get back to the bargaining table with CFA at any time to reach a fiscally sustainable agreement that provides salary increases for our valued faculty.”
CFA pushed back on some of the factfinder’s recommendations but offered counterproposals like changing when the 12% salary increase would start to help reduce costs.
The CSU said that CFA’s salary demands are not financially viable and would result in large cuts to funding for other parts of campuses, which may mean layoffs.
At a press meeting in December 2023, Freedman also said that it would be a “complicated” move to dip into the CSU’s $2 billion reserves due to state law and university policy of using that money for “one time or nonrecurring purposes,” such as emergencies.
“At the system level, our spending commitments outstrips our available revenue, and fewer dollars can be allocated to campuses,” said Freedman. “We’re really between a rock and a hard place here because we have such limited resources.”
In counter, CFA had an outside, third-party financial analyst review CSU’s budget in October 2023 using the university’s public records, which argued that the university wouldn’t even have to access reserves to meet CFA’s demands because of “significant annual operating cash surpluses.”
The analysis also found that the biggest category of increase in university spending was for executive and management positions in recent years.
All of the 23 Cal State presidents received a 7% raise in 2022, and 14 of them who went through three-year reviews received equity increases between 6.7% and 20%, according to a 2022 report. Their salaries, along with the chancellor’s and other administrations’, can be found here.
“It’s pretty remarkable that somebody who makes almost $1 million has decided to walk away from the bargaining table in the spirit of trying to make sure her employees have a livable wage,” said O’Donnell. “We remain committed to transformative demands.”
Previously, CFA went on strike in December 2023, and Teamsters Local 2010 in November.