Thousands of Cal State faculty strike one day for higher pay

Faculty at Cal Poly Pomona strike on campus.

Dec. 4, 2023 Updated 12:53 PM PT

California State University faculty walked out of classrooms Monday during the crucial end-of-term time, demanding higher pay and marking a high-profile escalation in contract negotiations between their union and the nation’s largest four-year public higher education system.

Faculty — including professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches — at four campuses will each participate in a one-day strike. At Cal Poly Pomona on Monday, hundreds of faculty members crowded on sidewalks near the main entrances on campus, dressed in red and carrying signs that read “On strike!” The Cal Poly Pomona walkout will be followed by work stoppages later in the week at San Francisco State, Cal State L.A. and Sacramento State.

“These campuses were selected to send a strong signal to the CSU that they need to make major and significant movement on our bargaining demands,” said Charles Toombs, president of the California Faculty Assn. “Our faculty are absolutely fed up with their working conditions and salary that does not keep pace with inflation and the cost of living.”

More than 95% of faculty who participated in an October strike authorization vote approved the labor action, according to the union. It declined to say how many members voted.

Faculty at Cal Poly Pomona went on a one-day strike on campus on Monday.

The union, which represents 29,000 workers statewide, and the Cal State system are in the midst of “reopener bargaining,” where they can negotiate parts of the existing contract before it expires in June. The sides are divided on pay. Faculty want a 12% increase for the 2023-24 academic year, while the system has offered a 5% increase each of the next three years.

Under Cal State’s proposal, Toombs said the increases in the last two years of the plan would be contingent on the budget, meaning money for the raises would depend on the availability of state funding.

The union has called on CSU to draw on money from its reserves to fund pay increases, accusing the system of “hoarding billions of dollars in reserves instead of investing in faculty and staff.”

Cal State officials said last week they cannot afford to offer higher increases. They said the system must maintain the reserve money to pay for short-term or emergency expenses, such as maintenance projects.

“There’s only a limited pot of money, so that if we have to increase our salaries, that means that we have to cut other programs, other ongoing plans on the campuses,” said Leora Freedman, vice chancellor of human resources. “Something has to give.”

Freedman noted the system has recently reached contract agreements with other unions representing Cal State workers, including staff, campus police and academic student employees. Each of those agreements includes a 5% salary increase for this year, she said.

“We recognize the need to increase compensation and we are committed to doing so,” Freedman added. “But our resources are limited and our financial commitments must be fiscally sustainable.”

An independent fact-finder recently recommended the system and union agree on a 7% salary increase.

In addition to across-the-board raises, the union wants to increase the salary floor for its lowest paid full-time employees from $54,360 to $64,360. It’s also asking for other improvements, including caps on class sizes, an expansion of paid parental leave, accessible lactation rooms and gender-inclusive restrooms and changing rooms.

At Cal Poly Pomona, most of the university’s 1,400 faculty are expected to picket in front of the campus’ main entrances Monday, according to Nicholas Von Glahn, chapter president of the California Faculty Assn. at Cal Poly Pomona.

The union has not ruled out a longer strike in the future.

Von Glahn said the union also wants higher salaries for lecturers, who are full- or part-time faculty members assigned to temporary teaching appointments and make up more than half of the system’s faculty. The union wants to increase the salary floor for full-time lecturers, many of whom start at the bottom of the pay scale.

“The pay is so problematic for some of these contingent faculty, but they’re not contingent. They’re there for years,” he said. “And they’re the backbone of our workforce.”

Michael Lee-Chang, a sophomore political science major at Sacramento State, said he plans to join faculty from his campus on the picket line when they strike Thursday.

In addition to supporting workers, he said there’s a growing discontent among students toward the system’s leaders over recent tuition increases and what they feel are bloated salaries for top administrators.

“If they need better pay and better working conditions to ensure the quality of our education, then I think it’s a given that students join in solidarity,” said Lee-Chang, an intern with Students for Quality Education, an organization that works closely with the faculty union. “There’s sort of this animosity towards admin and CSU, and frustration that’s growing.”

Jessie Vallejo, an associate professor of music, who was on the Cal Poly Pomona picket line Monday, said she has had to work a second job playing in mariachi bands during her nine years working in the university system to make ends meet. Before receiving a promotion in 2021, she said she made $61,000 a year.

“Just nonstop work for almost a decade, seven days a week, even during the summer,” she said. “We’re not trying to be greedy or selfish or anything. We want what’s fair for everybody.”

Vang Vang, a librarian at Fresno State University, traveled to Pomona to stand on the picket line with her colleagues. Before receiving tenure, Vang said she made an annual salary of $52,000. She decided to delay having children until her late 30s because she didn’t make enough to support a family.

“I remember how I struggled. And I want to make it equitable for all of us,” she said. “It’s not right.

Those without tenure said their situations are even more precarious.

Leda Ramos, a lecturer in the department of Chicana(o) and Latina(o) studies at Cal State L.A., said lecturers face significant financial uncertainties and lack job security. In some instances, they’re contracted for only a semester and they’re guaranteed work only if the classes enroll a certain number of students.

Ramos, who has two children in their early 20s, makes an annual salary of $65,000. She and her partner struggle to cobble together enough money to pay for basic expenses, she said.

“If we have a medical bill … it means that we eat less that week,” she said. “We have to basically, every day, do the mental math of what am I going to eat, or what am I going to spend?’ ”

Another lecturer at Cal State L.A., Maria Del Carmen Unda, said she spends hours outside the classroom mentoring students, helping them apply for graduate school, on top of teaching four classes.

She graduated from a doctoral program in August and is in her first semester of teaching in the Chicana(o) and Latina(o) studies department. Living on her $50,000 annual salary is not sustainable, she said.

“It’s very much a privilege. It’s something that I love to do — mentor and help the next generation of leaders — but it comes at a cost,” she said. “I’m not asking here for $100,000. I could. I’m not. I’m just asking to be able to buy food and pay rent.”

Other workers in the Cal State system plan to support the faculty strikes. Teamsters Local 2010, which represents 1,110 tradespeople, including plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians and auto mechanics, said it would strike in solidarity with faculty during the week.

The teamsters held its own one-day strike at nearly all of the system’s 23 campuses in November, over what it described as unfair labor practices by the system during negotiations. Cal State officials have said they do not believe the teamsters’ strike was lawful. The teamsters have yet to reach an agreement with the university system.

Anthony Ratcliff, president of the Cal State L.A. chapter of the California Faculty Assn., said he believes faculty would be willing to go further if the system does not put forth a more “respectful” offer.

“The one-day strikes at each of these campuses is an opening act. And we’re going to let the university know, if you don’t come back to the table and do a fair contract, expect this labor unrest to increase,” he said. “We really want to show the power of the faculty.”

Thousands of Cal State faculty walk out in rolling strike, demanding higher pay

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