Cal State University Employees Rally for Better Pay and Benefits

By SETH SANDRONSKY

Is there workplace strength in numbers for higher pay and better benefits? California State University employees in multiple labor unions think so. 

To this end, employees in the Academic Professionals of California, California Faculty Association (CFA), CSU Employees Union – SEIU Local 2579, Teamsters Local 2010, UAW Local 4123, and Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD) rallied for what they say is a “fair contract” via a collective bargaining agreement outside the CSU Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach on July 11. A lack of progress on contract talks propelled the CSU employees’ actions, according to a CFA statement.

Charles Toombs is CFA president. “This bargaining campaign will center our most vulnerable faculty and address long-standing inequities experienced by many members, an expanded and strengthened parental leave policy and a vision for community safety rooted in our anti-racism and social justice principle,” according to his statement.

Against this backdrop, the CFA has reopened four articles of its 2022-24 Collective Bargaining Agreement, from workload to paid leave, salary, and health and safety. The CFA represents 29,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, coaches and counselors in the 23-campus CSU system in the nation’s most populous state.

Amy Bentley-Smith is a spokesperson for the CSU Office of the Chancellor. “The CSU recognizes and values the open exchange of ideas, opinions, and lawful free speech activities,” according to her. “The CSU is committed to continue bargaining with our unions and reaching an agreement with each one.”

Wage-income and work conditions are in dispute between the CSU and its employees unions. That dispute involves students in and out of classrooms and labs.

Current funding is insufficient for CSU to cover all of its obligations, from its students’ tuition to employees’ compensation, according to the Interim Chancellor at the July 11 meeting in Long Beach, the Los Angeles Times reported. The CSU funding gap of about $1.5 billion threatens to worsen. Therefore, much is uncertain for the CSU and its 460,000 students and unions that represent nearly 60,000 employees.

On that note, the CSU Board of Trustees chose Dr. Mildred García as the new chancellor. She is the first Latina chancellor who also acknowledges her African-ancestors.

Notwithstanding this historic development, the CFA opposes her salary and compensation package in light of CSU trustees and administrators discussing the placement of budget shortfalls on mainly Black and Brown students with 6% annual fee increases every five years. 

“Garcia’s $795,000 base salary is coupled with $80,000 in annual deferred comp,” reads a CFA statement, “$12,000 in yearly car allowance, and $96,000 a year in housing allowance. The total is $983,000. The chancellor select’s salary is more than what the President of the United States and Governor of California earn annually, combined, and the salary and total package represent an almost 30% increase from former Chancellor Castro.”

Nice work, apparently, if one can get it, that is.

Meanwhile, H.D. Palmer is a spokesperson for the state Department of Finance. A state budget that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed on July 10 includes a 5% year-over-year increase in the CSU base funding level, part of the Higher Education Compact that both CSU and University of California entered into with the Administration last year, according to him.

Seth Sandronsky lives and works in Sacramento. He is a journalist and member of the Pacific Media Workers Guild. Email sethsandronsky@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, August 15, 2023

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