Voting for the Tentative Agreement Starts Soon

Voting for the Tentative Agreement (TA) begins next week. For the last two weeks, statewide and campus-based townhalls informed members. The last townhall meeting takes place today, February 8, from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. Sign up here. 

The details of our TA terms are available here.

CSU Monterey Bay Lecturer Aimee Escalante began feeling as though she had to choose between her job and being attentive to her family. After being a lecturer in Range A for nearly 10 years, the stress of precarity and low pay was getting too difficult. “Lifting the floor for faculty will make the situation so much better for me and others,” said Escalante.

“I strongly support voting ‘Yes’ in favor of this Tentative Agreement,” said Cynthia Villanueva, a lecturer at CSU Dominguez Hills. “The gains that were accomplished in this TA demonstrate the incredible advocacy from CFA members to ensure that lecturer issues were a major focus of negotiations. In the 10-plus years that I’ve been a CFA member, this has been one of the most significant gains in lecturer salary. Even more, the increase in parental leave, the extension of Range Elevation, and language that now addresses service workload for lecturers, all make this TA a win for me.”

“Lifting the floor for faculty will make the situation so much better for me and others,”

– Aimee Escalante, CSU Monterey Bay Lecturer

If CFA members vote ‘Yes’ to the Tentative Agreement, all faculty will receive everything that is in the accepted terms of the agreement. The terms of the TA include:

• 5-percent General Salary Increase (GSI) for all faculty retroactive to July 1, 2023.
• 5-percent General Salary Increase for all faculty on July 1, 2024 (contingent on there not being an overall cut to CSU’s base funding from the state, which last happened in 2008).
• Raising the salary floor for our lowest-paid faculty in salary Ranges A and B:
  • 21.6% increase to Range A minimum salary after the GSI ($54,360 to $66,082 for FTE).
  • 15.1% increase to Range B minimum salary after the GSI ($64,860 to $74,658 for FTE).

Approximately 10,000 faculty, or roughly one-third of all faculty will experience a significant increase from raising the floor.

• Service Salary Increase (SSI) of 2.65% for 2024-25.
• Increasing paid parental leave from 6 to 10 weeks (a 67% increase in paid leave).
• Adding first-time contract language that acknowledges the importance of moving all campuses to a 1,500:1 students-to-counselor ratio (a ratio recommended by the International Accreditation of Counseling Services). CSU management has consistently disregarded the legitimacy of the ratio and the life-altering impact it would have on students.
• Adding the option for counselors to request academic-year or 10-month employment contracts.
• First-time contract language establishing a funded pool of assigned time for lecturers who provide service to their university.
• Adding language on course caps protecting against unilateral increases by management.
• First-time contract language establishing rights and protection for faculty who are interviewed or approached by police.
• First-time contract language regarding access to gender-inclusive restrooms and lactation spaces, and a process to monitor issues of access and adequacy.
• Increasing supplemental department chair pay (for the first time in over 13 years) from at least $80 to $160 monthly; with an increase from $120 to $240 monthly for chairs of departments with 18 or more FTE faculty effective July 1, 2023.
• Extending the current contract for 2022-24 one year to June 30, 2025, which allows CFA members to come together and plan for our next powerful bargaining campaign.

By voting ‘No,’ members reject the terms of the Tentative Agreement and all faculty return to the state of imposition. The terms of imposition were as follows:

• A 5% General Salary Increase (GSI) (effective January 31, 2024),
• A pay increase for department chairs of $160 per month of service as a chair person (effective at the start of the 2023-24 academic year)
• A possible increase of faculty parking fees by 15-18 percent per month.

With a return to imposition, we would continue to advocate for a better agreement, though CSU management is not obligated to return to the bargaining table.

For Escalante, the gains made in our TA go far beyond our union and California.

“I’m really proud of what we accomplished. As we know, higher education is under attack in many different areas. Liberal Arts are being cut in lots of departments. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs are being cut or reframed from what they originally were. We were able to push back against a lot of that and show our strength. We sent the message that faculty are not going to let that happen.”

Voting on the TA will begin on February 12 at 8 a.m. and end on February 18 at 5 p.m.

CFA members can expect more specific instructions in their emails with a link to the voting portal.