About 1,000 faculty and staffers from the 23 California State University campuses, as well as their supporters, rallied outside the CSU chancellor’s office on Tuesday, Nov. 7, demanding a fair contract and lighter workloads to interact more with students.
The rally came in the wake of last week’s vote to approve a strike for more than 29,000 union members.
A strike is not assured and the CSU said in a previous statement that it remains committed to agreeing to a deal with the labor union.
The noisy protest, organized by the California Faculty Association, took place from 10 a.m. to noon outside the Glenn S. Dumke Auditorium in Long Beach, where the CSU Board of Trustees gathered to discuss issues related to labor negotiations, education policy and the university system’s finances.
California Faculty Association representatives brought their labor proposals to CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia at the start of the monthly gathering. The union represents full-time faculty, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches at the largest public university system in the nation.
During the protest, hundreds of union members chanted that they were willing to shut the CSU campuses down if a list of demands, including a 12% salary increase starting this year, is not met.
Gregory “Chris” Brown, a criminal justice professor and CFA chapter president at Cal State Fullerton, said the issue is important because they are asking administrators to raise the floor for the lowest-paid teachers.
“This is a reopener and they are trying to offer us a 4% wage hike,” Brown said. “We know that would be like a pay cut and we are not going to accept that.”
Brown underscored better salaries, including a raise of up to $10,000 for low-paid full-time teachers, would be reflected in better educational conditions across the system.
The dispute began when the CFA proposed a salary bump of 12% in the current fiscal year, only to be met with the CSU’s counter proposal of 12%…
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