California State University educators and students reacted on Tuesday, Jan. 23, to the news announced late the previous day that the CSU and the statewide faculty union had reached a tentative labor deal — averting a planned weeklong strike after just a day.
The California Faculty Association, which represents nearly 30,000 members, launched a strike across the CSU system on Monday, the start of the spring semester.
The strike, and subsequent agreement, followed eight months of tense negotiations. Earlier this month, the CSU gave the CFA its “last, best and final offer,” which included a 5% salary increase.
The union, which had sought a 12% raise, responded by saying it was “met with disrespect from management” and had no choice but to proceed with the strike.
The strike sent faculty out into the rain on Monday to picket their respective campuses, left students unsure about when the semester would start in earnest — and, it appears, catalyzed the two sides to strike a deal.
The union – which represents professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches – announced the tentative deal in a Monday news release, ending the remainder of the planned five-day strike.
“I am extremely pleased and deeply appreciative that we have reached common ground with CFA that will end the strike immediately,” CSU Chancellor Mildred García said in a separate Monday evening press release. “The agreement enables the CSU to fairly compensate its valued, world-class faculty while protecting the university system’s long-term financial sustainability.”
The tentative deal secured a 5% general salary increase for all faculty members, retroactive to July 1, according to a memo sent to union members on Monday evening. Union faculty members will also get another 5% general salary increase this coming July — contingent on whether California reduces its funding for the system in the coming budget cycle, the memo said.
Other issues raised by the CFA during negotiations included workload, health and safety concerns, parental leave and class sizes.
Should the second salary increase go through, the deal would amount to a 10% raise in less than a year, CFA spokesperson Michelle Hatfield wrote in an email.
The deal now heads into its ratification process, during which union members will have to vote for the deal’s final approval. The CFA is still working on the voting timeline, Hatfield wrote in her email.
How the rank-and-file feel about the tentative contract will be decided during that process. But on Tuesday, the reaction seemed mixed.
“It was a big surprise that we settled so quickly,” Thomas J. Norman, a professor of management at Cal State Dominguez Hills and an at-large member of the CFA’s executive board, said on Tuesday. “When I saw the deal, I felt really, really proud of what we got.
“Would I have liked to see a higher number? Sure, sure I would have,” Norman added. “But I understand there’s constraints.”
Charles Thomas, associate professor of business law at Cal State Dominguez, also said he was pleased that the tentative agreement exceeded the initial 5% increase the CSU offered.
“I am happy we were able to avoid a prolonged strike,” Thomas wrote in an email.
But not everyone was pleased.
“There was no reason to give up negotiations after just one day, while the pressure was on CSU management and faculty were eager to strike,” H. Jochen Schenk, a professor of biological science at Cal State Fullerton, said in a Tuesday email. “There could have been a better deal for faculty if CFA leadership hadn’t folded.”
Schenk said he was uncomfortable with the second 5% increase being contingent on California’s budget for the system. Instead, Schenk said, the CFA should have held out for a firm commitment to a salary increase in July and ensured that pay kept up with past inflation.
Andrew Byrne, an associate professor at Cal Poly Pomona, also said he felt the salary increases weren’t adequate enough to recruit new staffers, especially those who need to support a family or aren’t already independently wealthy.
“We need to attract faculty as diverse as the demographics of California, and they need to be able to purchase a home here,” Byrne wrote in a Tuesday email. “I rely on my side gig so I can do my dream job of being a professor. I love my colleagues, I love my students, but more and more, it feels as if I am paying to be here.”
There’s also the lingering question of how the CSU plans to pay for the deal. The Board of Trustees recently OK’d 6% annual tuition hikes over the next five years – the first tuition increase in more than a decade – in an effort to cover its $1.5 billion funding gap.
CSU officials will provide details about how the system plans to pay for the deal at a later date, Hazel J. Kelly, a spokesperson for the chancellor’s office, said in a Tuesday email.
Still, among the items most celebrated in the tentative deal, Hatfield said, is that the salary floor for the CFA’s lowest-paid faculty members will increase. That had been a sticking point during the negotiations.
“Raising the floor for our lowest paid faculty is a HUGE deal,” Hatfield wrote. “Minimum salaries will be raised 21.6% for range A (from $54,360 to $66,078) and 15.15% for range B (from $64,860 to $71,103) by July 1, 2024.”
That aspect of the agreement, Norman said, will most-heavily impact lecturers, who often teach the majority of university classes.
“I work very hard to make sure they feel welcome,” Norman said. “But when there’s such pay differential, treatment doesn’t pay the rent.”
Following the deal’s announcement, though, there was some confusion among students and staffers about when classes would resume. Many classes were initially canceled this week by professors participating in the planned five-day strike.
Trisha Anas, a fourth-year student at Cal State Northridge, said that as of Tuesday afternoon, there hadn’t been a mass email from the university letting students know that they were expected to be in class in accordance with the strike’s end.
“There’s been a lot of uncertainty,” Anas said. “I kind of feel like we got left in the dark a little bit.”
Anas, who runs the Instagram page for CSUN’s student-run newspaper, The Daily Sundial, said that she’s seen a lot of comments on the page’s posts echoing the same confusion from students.
“One must realize that most faculty had prepared for a five-day strike and had adjusted their syllabi and teaching schedules accordingly,” Schenk said. “Suddenly, they were asked to teach the next day. Nobody had suggested such a possibility before, so lots of classes probably were taught by people with minimal or no preparation. Most students presumably also were caught by surprise and had to change their plans on short notice. ”
The only way that Anas knew she was expected in class was from her professors and her department, she said.
Norman, for his part, said he’s hoping for grace from the university for absences on Tuesday, given the short turnaround from the strike to the deal.
“We anticipate that most striking faculty have returned to campus and are resuming their classes (Tuesday),” Hazel said in her email. “Students are encouraged to look for communications from their instructors or reach out to them with any questions.”
Other items offered in the tentative deal, meanwhile, include increased paid parental leave from six to 10 weeks, and improved access to gender-inclusive restrooms and lactation areas on campuses.
While the parental leave increase was celebrated by some, other faculty members said the agreement fell short of what’s needed.
“A 10 week leave is nonsensical for universities that are on a semester schedule,” Schenk wrote. “How can anybody teach just five weeks out of 15? Who would teach the remaining 10 weeks and how would this work for students? A full semester is the only solution that makes any practical sense.”