CSU Management Returns to Bargaining Table with Disingenuous, Offensive Proposals

Rights, respect, and justice.

These values guide the CFA Bargaining Team during negotiations for a successor Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Based on CFA’s latest bargaining session with management on Friday, rights, respect, and justice are what they are trying to take away from faculty.

At our third session (management cancelled the second two days), the CSU bargaining team submitted proposals to extend management timelines to investigate faculty and expand their power to discipline faculty with paid suspensions (removing faculty from the classroom), and broaden management’s power to harm the personnel records of faculty with permanent reprimands.

This is how they are behaving right out of the gate. The paid suspensions and reprimands proposals do nothing but take away due process for CFA members.

“It is remarkable that, in the same meeting where CSU management cited its own problems with high administrative turnover, they simultaneously proposed to extend – in fact, to triple – the period under which faculty may be temporarily suspended pending an investigation from 30 to 90 days,” said Vang Vang, a member of the CFA Bargaining Team and librarian at Fresno State. “Grievances, investigations, and discipline cases notoriously drag on and are at an all-time high, and yet the CSU wishes to further lengthen these processes? We are disappointed that CSU management appears to want to further delay and defer an already emotionally draining experience for faculty.”

CSU management also passed a proposal changing sabbatical leaves that infringes on academic freedom and interferes with the CSU Academic Senate and shared governance.

When asked for justification for their proposals, CSU management provided none. They did not offer up any rationale, data, or examples as to how their proposals would help the CSU run more effectively, improve working conditions, or enhance student learning. Management’s proposals unnecessarily and arbitrarily reduce the rights of our members.

This is Randy Solorio’s first time serving on the Bargaining Team.  The Sacramento State gymnastics coach was taken aback by management’s approach at Friday’s session.

“I was surprised they came at us with no solid ground in their proposals,” he said. “Especially coming from academia, we’re expected to have facts when putting information forward.  If my students came to me and made a statement without backing it up, I can’t accept that.”

And, this came after management requested cancellation of our two previous bargaining sessions so they could work on responses to our October 23 proposals.  Yet they had no such response Friday.  They only offered this offensive and unjustified attempt at a power grab.

Our next bargaining session is November 20.  We’ll keep you updated.  In the meantime, CFA launched a resource center for everything bargaining-related.  Visit www.CFAbargaining.org to read negotiation updates, see CFA and CSU proposals, peruse research on hot topics related to bargaining, and more.

Members are encouraged to submit questions and ideas for the Bargaining Team at bargainingideas@calfac.org.