CFA Members Plan to Strike in December

CFA members will be going on strike next month if we are unable to settle our re-opener contract once the statutory process is complete.

With the authority of 95 percent of our members who voted, CFA’s Board of Directors unanimously voted to call a strike over CSU management’s failure to settle re-opener contract negotiations fairly. Faculty in all ranges and ranks need better pay, better parental leave, workload support, and health and safety rights that align with our anti-racist and social justice values.

Four campuses will hold one-day strikes:

• December 4, Cal Poly Pomona
• December 5, San Francisco State
• December 6, CSU Los Angeles
• December 7, Sacramento State

If you are a faculty member on any of these campuses, be ready to strike and join the picket line for these dates. Your chapter leaders will be reaching out to you with more information. In the meantime, visit www.calfac.org/strike for FAQs and more information. Members at campuses not listed can show solidarity with regional colleagues by joining the picket lines on days they are not scheduled to teach. Faculty also have one personal day per year, and CFA members can choose to take this personal day to join colleagues at one of these campuses for the day.

CFA members are prepared to withhold our labor to get the contract we deserve. We recognize the need to join together and fight CSU management’s disinvestment in the people who are directly responsible for student learning and success.

If these strikes fail to convince CSU management to settle with us fairly, CFA’s Board of Directors intends to call more strikes during the spring term.

Thus far in the statutory process, CSU management continues to reject our calls for:

• 12-percent pay raises that keep ahead of inflation.
• Pay equity and raising the floor for our lowest-paid faculty.
• Manageable workloads that allow for more support and engagement with students.
• More counselors to improve students’ much-needed access to mental health counseling.
• Expanding paid parental leave.
• Accessible lactation and milk storage spaces for lactating faculty.
• Safe gender-inclusive restrooms and changing rooms.
• Safety provisions for faculty interacting with university police on our campuses.

“CSU management will learn the hard way that faculty are not willing to settle for less than they deserve. CSU management will learn what employers around the country are having to learn — employees deserve better pay and working conditions,” CFA President Charles Toombs said.  

We are close to concluding the statutory process, and we expect to be able to legally strike on the dates set out above.

Many members may have also heard about the November 14 strike by Teamsters Local 2010 members – the skilled trades workers at the CSU. Learn more about their day of action and ways to support our union siblings.