By Madilynne MedinaJan 17, 2024 (SFGate.com)
California State University faculty members across all 23 campuses plan to strike next week after failing to reach a wage agreement with university officials.
The strike, set for Jan. 22 to 26, also marks the first week of instruction for the spring semester for many CSU campuses. If all faculty members participate, more than 29,000 union employees will walk off the job.
The California Faculty Association, a union composed of professors, lecturers, librarians and coaches, is seeking higher wages and improved benefits. In a monthslong bargaining process, CFA members have asked administrators for a 12% raise and other improved working conditions, including a more manageable workload, raising the counselor-to-student ratio, expanding parental leave and revamping campus safety measures.
In a statement, the CFA said it called the strike after a Jan. 9 bargaining session where administrators canceled existing negotiations and presented a final offer to faculty members. Raymand Buyco, the CFA president for the San Jose State University chapter and a history lecturer at the campus, told SFGATE that administrators walked out of the bargaining meeting on Jan. 9.
“There used to be some kind of cordial, diplomatic way of going about things, and they were a bit harsh on their way out the door,” Buyco said. “No counteroffers were presented.”
The CFA said its request for a 12% salary increase would allow the lowest-paid faculty members to make at least $64,360 per year, according to its website. CSU administrators, however, said that the CFA’s request was not feasible.
Instead, they announced Jan. 9 that the university system would give faculty a 5% raise, effective Jan. 31.The university system also confirmed that its proposed salary increase marks the end of contract negotiations.
“Throughout the bargaining process, the CFA never veered from its initial salary demand, which was not financially viable and would have resulted in massive cuts to campuses — including layoffs — that would have jeopardized the CSU’s educational mission,” the CSU said.
The CFA’s salary request would result in “painful cuts to the system,” Amy Bentley-Smith, a CSU spokesperson, told SFGATE. The strike also comes shortly after the CSU voted in November to raise tuition by 6% each year until the end of the 2028-29 academic year to compensate for the system’s $1.5 billion budget deficit.
Bentley-Smith said the CSU “respects the rights of the CFA to engage in strike activity” and that all campuses will remain open for the system’s 460,000 students. CSU administrators have not canceled classes, but faculty members who choose to strike may not hold them.
Though Bentley-Smith said next week’s strike is the first ever systemwide strike by faculty, one-day walkouts at select campuses have occurred.
Last month, CFA members participated in a one-day rolling strike across four campuses: Cal Poly Pomona, Sacramento State University, San Francisco State University and Cal State Los Angeles. And before that, a one-day strike at CSU East Bay and CSU Dominguez Hills in 2011 was the first faculty strike in the system’s history, NBC Los Angeles previously reported.
Jan 17, 2024
Madilynne Medina is a news reporter for SFGATE. She is an alumna of San Jose State where she served as executive editor for the “Spartan Daily.” She is also a Bay Area native. Email her at madilynne.medina@sfgate.com
