Cal State University said Tuesday, Jan. 9 that all instructional faculty, librarians, counselors and coaches will receive a 5% pay increase, effective Jan. 31.
The increase — which will be revisited in future bargaining sessions before their contract expires in June — falls well below the 12% wage hike the 29,000 California Faculty Association-represented employees have been seeking.
Union president Charles Toombs said CFA members are preparing to strike later this month as a result.
CSU said a 12% pay increase was “not financially viable,” and would result in massive cuts to campuses — including layoffs — that would have jeopardized CSU’s educational mission.
The 5% salary increase, the university said, is consistent with agreements it already has reached with five of its other labor unions.
“With this action, we will ensure that well-deserved raises get to our faculty members as soon as possible,” Leora Freedman, CSU’s vice chancellor for human resources, said in a statement. “We have been in the bargaining process for eight months, and the CFA has shown no movement, leaving us no other option.”
In a statement issued Tuesday, Toombs said the union was “met with disrespect from management today.”
“After 20 minutes, the CSU management bargaining team threatened systemwide layoffs, walked out of bargaining, canceled all remaining negotiations, then imposed a last, best and final offer on CFA members,” he said.
Toombs said that leaves the union with “no other option” but to move forward with a planned systemwide strike in coalition with Teamsters Local 2010 members.
“The systemwide strike on all 23 campuses over Jan. 22-26 will demonstrate to Chancellor Mildred Garcia that she must do right by the faculty, staff and students of the CSU,” he said.
The workers held a series of one-day strikes last month at CSU campuses in Pomona, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento to highlight their concerns. They serve an estimated 485,000 students in the CSU system, the largest four-year public higher education system in the U.S.
In addition to the general salary increase, CSU said it will be increasing department chairperson pay and allowing for modest parking fee increases.
In addition to the 12% pay increase, the union is seeking:
- Manageable workloads
- More counselors to improve access to mental health services
- Expanding paid parental leave
- Accessible lactation and milk storage spaces
- Safety provisions for faculty
CSU faculty and lecturers say they’re overworked and underpaid under the current contract — particularly as California housing costs continue to rise. They’ve also complained about an unequal tier system in which adjunct lecturers make lower wages with fewer benefits while also lacking job security.
CSU currently provides 30 days off for parental leave, a policy CFA members say results in disruption to classes when faculty members leave mid-semester and are forced to take additional time off with no pay.
Freeman said CSU is committed to paying fair, competitive salaries and benefits for faculty members “who are the cornerstone of our university system.”
“But we must also operate within our means to protect the long-term success and stability of the university, our students and our faculty,” she said.
The last time the CFA was set to strike was in 2016 when the union called off strike action in the eleventh hour after accepting a concession agreement.