Posts tagged California Faculty Association
California State Union Approves Tentative Deal, Despite Dissent
February 22, 2024 // . Some members publicly campaigned against the deal, expressing disappointment that the strike didn’t last longer. “We know that some members had strong concerns about the process and questions about the result,” Sharon Elise, the union’s associate vice president of racial and social justice, South region, said in the release. “We will only be successful if we’re working together to continue building a CSU that empowers students and provides work environments that support faculty and staff.”
CSU faculty union approves contract with university that would raise salaries
February 20, 2024 // “We believe that accepting this deal leaves our economic and social-justice issues inadequately addressed, lets CSU off the hook with no systemic change, and fails to protect our students’ right to an accessible, affordable, high-quality education,” the Vote Down website says. “I felt that we were only just getting started in our power,” said Robin Dodds, a professor at California State L.A. who is involved with a campaign on her campus to vote no on the agreement. “I would prefer to go back to the bargaining table and continue to do better for the union.”
Cal State faculty start strike at largest US public university system
January 22, 2024 // “I have no interest in a strike. We are ready and willing to come back to the bargaining table with the California Faculty Association,” she said. “But we must work within our financial realities.” In contract negotiations earlier this month, the university agreed to 5 percent raises, which the union deemed inadequate. The university reached a labor agreement with its Teamsters union local over the weekend, which also prepared to strike. The strike follows a similar graduate student walkout at the University of California system in December 2022, which resulted in significant wage increases after 40 days of striking.
CSU and Teamsters gear up for strike
December 25, 2023 // One of the demands is to distribute salaries fairly. Loren Cannon is a faculty lecturer in the Philosophy department of Cal Poly and is on the statewide bargaining team for CFA. Cannon says, “why is it that we’ve got 23 presidents of relatively small universities that are making as much as the president of the United States? Very high paid administrators and management and we need that money to go towards education.” Cannon is a member of the philosophy department at Cal Poly Humboldt. he explains how the average CSU president makes seven times the salary of the average full-time faculty member.
CFA votes to approve a union strike
November 2, 2023 // CFA-SLO Political Action Chair and History Professor Cameron Jones said the union is preparing for a strike now in the event that all negotiations fall through. While 95% of CFA members voted to go on strike, the union cannot legally strike unless bargaining fails, according to Jones. Currently, the CFA and CSU are in fact-finding, the second to last stage of bargaining.
San Francisco State University facing mass staffing cuts
October 6, 2023 // The move is part of a cost-savings measure by a system facing a troubling trend: Fewer San Franciscans are having children, meaning there are fewer young adults in California to attend the state universities. Kent Bravo, a spokesperson for San Francisco State, said the university had to deal with the reality of a shrinking student body: “We must rethink our operations to match current enrollment.” The faculty union, however, said the cuts are outsized and dramatic. “It’s very aggressive, and it’s out of scale,” said Brad Erickson, a full-time lecturer in the School of Liberal Studies, and president of the union’s San Francisco State chapter. He criticized the university for saying the cuts represented a “glide path” towards financial sustainability, and called the process “chaotic.”
Potential Strike from CSU Staff and Faculty?
October 6, 2023 // The demands include but are not limited to, a 12% salary increase, extended paid maternal leave (16 weeks rather than 10), lactation stations, a managed course cap so the staff’s workload is not too overwhelming, improved health and safety regulations, and gender neutral restrooms. All demands have been denied by the CSU system; in fact, according to Professor Jeffrey Newcomb, the East Bay Chapter CFA president, majority of demands were not even mentioned during the bargaining process and sessions. In return the CSU system initially offered a 4% salary increase for one fiscal year, which has since been increased to a 5% later into the bargaining process.
CALIFORNIA UNION WATCH 2022 QUARTER 1 REVIEW
April 11, 2022 // The California Union Watch Twitter account (@CalUnionWatch) has been tracking government union contributions over the first quarter of this year (January 1, 2022 through March 31, 2022). Here are the five biggest union contributors from this year so far. We will be only focusing on state-level elections.