The California State University has reached an agreement with the faculty union, which has called off its weeklong strike that started on Monday.
CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia said that they have “reached common ground” with the California Faculty Association, which includes tenure-track and lecturer faculty, counselors, librarians, and coaches who work in all 23 campuses of the university’s system.
“The agreement enables the CSU to fairly compensate its valued, world-class faculty while protecting the university system’s long-term financial sustainability. With the agreement in place, I look forward to advancing our student-centered work — together — as the nation’s greatest driver of social mobility and the pipeline fueling California’s diverse and educated workforce,” Garcia said in a statement Monday.
According to the CFA, its faculty members are expected to return to their work assignments on Tuesday following their Tentative Agreement with the CSU.
“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,” CFA President Charles Toombs said in a statement.
According to the CFA, the TA includes the following:
-5-percent general salary increase for all faculty retroactive to July 1, 2023.
-5-percent general salary increase for all faculty on July 1 in 2024, (contingent on the state not reducing base funding to the CSU).
-Raising the salary floor for our 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; additional $3,000 increase in the minimum pay for Range A on July 1, 2024.
-Salary step increase (SSI) of 2.65% for 2024-25.
-Increasing paid parental leave from six to 10 weeks.
-Increasing protection for faculty who have dealings with police by providing for a union rep in those interactions.
-Improving access to gender-inclusive restrooms and lactation spaces, and a pathway to monitor issues of access.
-Providing support for lecturer engagement in service work.
-Extending the current contract for 2022-24 one year to June 30, 2025.
“This historic agreement was won because of members’ solidarity, collective action, bravery, and love for each other and our students,” said Antonio Gallo, Associate Vice President of Lecturers, South. “This is what People Power looks like. This deal immensely improves working conditions for faculty and strengthens learning conditions for students.”
The strike and the agreement followed months of tense negotiations between the university management and the faculty union over pay raise and improved benefits. After the initial negotiations failed, the CFA announced its planned strike.
“At the bargaining table, CSU management did not take our proposals seriously until CFA members were willing to withhold our labor. Our bargaining proposals offered solutions to desperately needed equity transformation for CSU students, faculty, and staff, including raising the base salary for our lowest paid, struggling faculty, manageable workloads that allow for more student engagement, more mental health services for students, limits to police power, and humane and adequate parental leave,” the union said.
The CFA said its members will now have an opportunity to ratify the contract in the coming weeks following the agreement with the university.
The CSU, meanwhile, said the details regarding the TA will be provided soon.
CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia, caved. But it’s not her money.
What no thank you to the taxpayers and students who will have to pay for the raises? I feel sorry for the students that will have to take out even bigger loans to get the degree.
And no contract for CA educators would be complete without mandating a sprinkling of wokeness along with money…
“-Increasing protection for faculty who have dealings with police by providing for a union rep in those interactions.
-Improving access to gender-inclusive restrooms and lactation spaces, and a pathway to monitor issues of access.”
Why would an educator need a union rep when contacted by police? Why would an educator even have a job if they anticipate being contacted by police? It speaks volumes as to the character of those people educating young adults in CA these days.
Not true. The CFA caved. The union membership won’t approve this.