Negotiations between CSU faculty and CSU management stalled on Monday as both sides failed to reach a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement.
Several labor unions represent the various CSU employees. The largest union is the California Faculty Association (CFA), representing 29,000 tenured, tenure-track, lecturer, counselor, librarian and coaching faculty at all 23 CSU campuses.
The Teamsters 2010 represents about 1,100 skilled trade workers. The California State University Employees Union which represents covers 16,000 support staff. United Academic Workers (UAW) which represents graduate student workers, Academic Professionals of California (APC) represents 3,000 professional support staff and UAPD representing physicians and dentists. All the unions work as a coalition but negotiate separate contacts for their members.
This was the fourth meeting involving both sides in this series of negotiations. CFA asked for a 12% raise in salary over the next fiscal year. According to an email from the CSU chancellor’s office, they offered a 12% raise over the next three years with no reduction in retirement pay or healthcare coverage in response.
“CFA leadership, unwilling to move off of its initial demand of a 12% increase in this fiscal year, has since filed a request for an impasse determination with the California Public Employment Relations Board,” said Interim Chancellor Jolene Koester via email.
According to the chancellor’s office, CFA was not willing to consider a multi-year deal. As a result, CSU offered a 5% raise over the next fiscal year, up from the previous 4% they offered previously.
“We’ve had almost 15% inflation over the last couple years and their offer is 5%, so basically their offer is another 10% cut in pay,” said Michael Harris, Teamsters 2010 union representative for Long Beach and Cal State Long Beach project painter.
Along with the increased salary, faculty are asking for improved paid family leave for new parents, greater campus safety for students and faculty and a defined workload for all staff.
“They (CSU Management) insist they cannot offer raises for subsequent years without guaranteed state funding when they have done so in previous contracts. Skilled trade workers kept campuses maintained during the pandemic, and in turn, CSU wants to take away emergency pay and the opportunity for workers to increase their pay,” said Aimee Baror, communications director for the Teamsters 2010 chapter.
With Monday’s meeting yielding little in the way of compromise, the next step in the negotiation process is set to bring in a state-appointed third-party mediator to try and resolve the dispute. If that fails to move the needle, factfinding would be the next step in the process. CFA must submit to both mediation and fact-finding before any job action can be taken, according to an email sent to union members.
“The CSU will continue to negotiate in good faith with the express goal of reaching an agreement that provides our employees fair and appropriate compensation within the funding constraints that we face,” Hazel J. Kelly, strategic communications director for CSU, said via email.
With Monday’s meeting yielding little in the way of compromise, the next step in the negotiation process is set to bring in a state-appointed third-party mediator to try and resolve the dispute. If that fails to move the needle, factfinding would be the next step in the process. CFA must submit to both mediation and fact-finding before any job action can be taken, according to an email sent to union members.
“Simply put, the demand for a one-year general salary increase of 12% is unreasonable because it would grossly undermine the CSU’s fiscal stability,” Koester said.
According to the email from the chancellor’s office, CFA’s proposal would cost $380 million in the first year of implementation.
Some union members like Michael Harris believe this is all heading towards a labor strike.
“Every day negotiations stay the way they are, we get a lot closer to a strike and we’re basically waiting for all the contracts to line up where we can all legally strike together because the negotiations are a joke,” Harris said.
Harris mentioned the Teamsters 2010 plan to hand out flyers on the CSULB campus on Aug.18. This is the date on which many Long Beach State students move into their dorms.
Currently, CFA have suspended bargaining and are moving on to the mediation portion of the process.
More information about the negotiations can be found on CFA’s website as well as the CSU website.