Following months of tense negotiations, California Faculty Association members and CSU management reached a Tentative Agreement (TA) ending the first systemwide faculty strike at the largest, four-year public university in the country. Faculty are now expected to return to their work assignments on Tuesday, January 23.

“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.

Highlights of the Tentative Agreement:

  • 5-percent General Salary Increase for all faculty retroactive to July 1, 2023 or retroactive to hire date if hired this academic year.
  • 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.
  • Service 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.

Our hard-earned TA reflects the solidarity displayed by faculty, staff, and students across all 23 campuses. To all the hard-working faculty who have been organizing on the street and on campus, your efforts have earned this victory. Thank you to our statewide community of support.

“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.”

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.

This victory is an extension of campaigns across the country to transform higher education including the systemwide teaching assistant strike at the University of California and significant gains won by University of Southern California graduate students among others.

We are also excited as we await the results of the California State University Employees Union (CSUEU) student assistant unionization election and look forward to all the new workers joining the CSU union family.

Now that the tentative agreement has been reached, CFA members will have an opportunity to ratify the contract in the coming weeks.

ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA FACULTY ASSOCIATION: CFA represents more than 29,000 tenure-line instructional faculty, lecturers, librarians, counselors, and coaches on the 23 campuses of the California State University system, from Cal Poly Humboldt in the north, to San Diego State in the south. Learn more about CFA at calfac.org and visit our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

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