The Cal State University and California Faculty Association have each set their sights on a new primary goal: to get Proposition 30 passed.
After months of tension between the two groups over contract negotiations, CFA and the CSU are now focusing their energy on advocating Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative, or Prop 30.
“This tentative agreement is good for the faculty of the CSU,” Andy Merrifield, vice chair of the CFA bargaining team, said. “It protects the faculty from some ill-conceived ideas that would have endangered the working conditions of our faculty.”
Despite threats of pay cuts and strikes, both groups are happy with the tentative agreement.
“We’re pleased that in times as tough as now, we were able to find an agreement,” CSU Spokesman Erik Fallis said. “We believe that this contract reflects … the things the CSU was concerned about when it came to providing a quality education to our students.”
Merrifield also said that now, without contract negotiations, “The CSU and CFA can work together,” in advocating for the passage of Prop. 30 in November.
Although Brown’s tax initiative does not provide any additional funding to the CSU, it secures school and public safety funding by temporarily raising income taxes for those who earn salaries of more than $250,000 and raising sales tax.
The faculty union has already demonstrated its support for Brown’s tax initiative. Cal State San Bernardino faculty and students rallied for Prop. 30 at San Bernardino High School on Aug. 15, according to the CFA website.
Also, CFA President Lilian Taiz supplied informational Prop. 30 fliers to Cal State Long Beach faculty Tuesday, at one of multiple meetings she attended with faculty throughout several CSU campuses.
Although Taiz’s meetings primarily focused on discussing the new tentative agreement with professors, CSULB faculty were also provided with “Nov. Election Commitment Surveys,” asking them if they would publicly support Prop. 30 in classrooms.
“[Prop. 30] is absolutely vital,” Merrifield said. “When [CFA and the CSU] were moving in the same direction, one of the things we said that was important was getting funding to the CSU.”
The CSU Board of Trustees also took a position in support of Prop. 30 at the July meeting. Fallis said that even though the CSU, as a state entity, is restricted in its involvement in political campaigns, the system can – and has – revealed the shortfalls of the tax initiative’s failure and the benefits of its passing.
CSULB President F. King Alexander said that had contract negotiations between the CSU and CFA not ended – thus engendering a campus-wide faculty strike this fall – the strike could have compromised public opinion on the initiative.
“The public would just see that the teachers are striking and the students don’t have anywhere to go,” Alexander said. “I don’t think it would have helped the public opinion on Prop. 30; it would have hurt it.”
CFA President at CSULB, Teri Yamada, said that along with the threat of an upcoming strike, the search for a new chancellor could have contributed to finally settling an agreement between CFA and the CSU.
However, Yamada and Fallis also said the two groups had still been “making progress” during contract negotiations.
“It appears from external viewing that the two sides are very far apart,” Fallis said, “but, in reality, the two teams are much closer to an agreement than that.”
The tentative agreement awaits ratification from both CFA and the CSU before it goes into effect as the new contract. Faculty members have the opportunity to vote on the agreement until Thursday, and the Board is scheduled to discuss the contract at its September meeting.