CSU Management Feels Heat of Members’ Indignation over Bargaining

We are in mediation sessions this week with a state-appointed third party and CSU management. The details of mediation are required to be confidential, but we will report as much about the process as we can, as soon as we can.

The best way for CFA members to help contribute to the current contract campaign is by completing our commit card and joining our movement to obtain salary increases for all faculty, equitable pay for our lowest-paid faculty, improved parental leave, reasonable workload, more student access to mental health counselors, and health and safety for all faculty, students, and staff.

CFA East Bay Lecturers Council Representative Kevin Pina is helping build power on his campus by serving on the Contract Action Team.

“Our message is clear: Faculty deserve more pay. You and your students deserve more quality time in the classroom together by lowering your course caps. You deserve to always feel healthy and secure in your work environment. You deserve more paid time off to manage life’s unexpected events whether that be the joy and care of a new child or a crisis in your family,” said Pina, a CSU East Bay communication lecturer. “Sign the commit card today to achieve the CSU we deserve.”

As faculty and students begin the school year, campuses are buzzing with the latest news on bargaining. And CSU management is feeling the heat.

Interim Chancellor Jolene Koester authored a disingenuous note sent to all faculty and staff earlier this month with CSU management’s nonsense austerity message. She then followed that up with an insincere video this week to workers crying poor yet again.

Our members open up to share their heartbreaking struggle after struggle after struggle explaining the dire need for our transformative proposals. Koester’s claims that she and the CSU management value the “transformative magic” of faculty and staff is belied by her actions and contingent salary offers that don’t keep pace with inflation while executives have seen double digit salary increases up to 29% under her leadership. Her attempts to counter our arguments with fearmongering threats of “difficult and painful” decisions on our campuses also flies in the face of the expanding administrative bloat while the CSU is also amassing $8.6 billion in cash investments and $3.7 billion in reserves. There is nothing “magical” about the hard work and commitment of faculty as we educate the students of California.

The status quo harms faculty and students and is not sustainable.