By: Anthony Orrico, Elizabeth Basile and Juan Calvillo
Both the California Faculty Association and the California State University Employees Union have had an eventful academic year during 2023-2024, keeping unions in scholastic discourse.
The CFA on strike
The CFA and the CSU reached a tentative agreement, on Jan. 24, the first day of the planned week-long state-wide strike. Faculty and students were informed about the tentative agreement and the strike was called off.
The tentative agreement includes
- A 5% General Salary Increase (GSI) for all faculty retroactive to July 1, 2023.
- A 5% GSI for all faculty on July 1, 2024 (contingent on the state not reducing base funding to the CSU).
- Raising the salary floor for the lowest-paid faculty in salary ranges A and B, $3,000 increase in the minimum pay for ranges A and B retroactive to July 1, 2023, an additional $3,000 increase in the minimum pay for Range A on July 1, 2024 and a salary step increase (SSI) of 2.65% for 2024-25.
In addition to salary increases, paid parental leave will increase from six weeks to 10 weeks and there will be increased protection for faculty who have dealings with police by providing for a union rep in those interactions.
“The collective action of so many lecturers, professors, counselors, librarians and coaches over these last eight months forced CSU management to take our demands seriously. This tentative agreement makes major gains for all faculty at the CSU,” Charles Toombs, CFA president, said.
On Feb. 19, despite opposition, 76% of CFA members voted in favor of the tentative agreement. Many members believed the agreement did not go far enough in addressing the student-to-counselor ratio and the course load for lecturers.
“Part of what we were doing was recognizing that faculty working conditions are student learning conditions, and we were on strike for significant improvements, and those conditions are still not met,” May Lin, associate professor of Asian American Studies at CSULB, said.
CFA emphasized this was not the end of their fight for better working conditions but rather a necessary step in the process.
The tentative agreement pushes the current contract into 2025 and negotiations on a new contract will begin when the CBA expires in June of 2025.
“And, the goal is to just make sure that we’re moving forward in a progressive way towards what it is our faculty members need in terms of their livelihood and their working conditions. But it’s an ongoing process that never ends,” Diane Blair, CFA secretary and professor of communications at Fresno State, said.
The CSU Board of Trustees met on March 4 to vote to ratify the tentative agreement approved by the majority of CFA members.
“We are so grateful for the support that we have in just keeping our CSU going forward,” Wenda Fong, board chair, said.
California State University student assistants unite
Student assistants voted to officially organize under the California State University Employees Union (CSUEU) 7,050 eligible voters voted yes, according to a CSUEU newsletter.
Regional Attorney for the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) Stephanie O’Hara, who addressed the audience waiting for election results from PERB headquarters, began by saying that in April 2023 the CSUEU filed a petition for certification to PERB to be “the exclusive representative for a bargaining unit of student assistants employed by the trustees at California State University.”
Student assistants gained the vote as part of an agreement from negotiations between CSUEU and the CSU system on Oct. 11, 2023.
The election was held between Jan. 25 and Feb. 22. The vote in favor of unionization was won with 7,050 votes, a 97% majority, according to a press release.
The CSUEU has since announced the collective bargaining team members that will represent students for negotiations have been selected.
The members are:
- Azure Starr from Chico State
- Torrance Carpenter from Fresno State
- Theresa Limbeek and Jacob Lott are from California State University Fullerton
- Michael Lee-Chang from Sacramento State
- Lysette Melendez from San Bernardino State
- Kaily Brooks and Kelsey Pickett are from San Diego State
- Noah Giddens from San Francisco State and
- Erin Green from Sonoma State University
Union spokesperson Khanh Weinberg said the next step for the bargaining team is their training in Sacramento and later they will exchange “sunshine proposals” where each side presents their opening proposals focusing on the areas they want to focus on in negotiations.