The Brief

Faculty members across the California State University system went on strike Monday over failed contract negotiations.

The California Faculty Association — which represents 29,000 professors (tenure-line and otherwise), lecturers, librarians, counselors, and coaches — has told its members to withhold all their labor. This includes teaching, grading, answering emails, and holding office hours.

More than 450,000 students may be without classes.

The labor action follows months of fruitless contract negotiations between the CFA and CSU management.

To keep up with the rising cost of living, the CFA has sought a 12% pay raise since May 2023. The union also has other demands: raising the salary floor for the lowest-paid faculty, establishing more manageable workloads, securing more counselors for students, and expanding parental leave.

Cal State leaders say the system cannot afford a 12% increase. Instead, they’ve pushed the faculty union to agree to a 5% pay raise, followed by two additional 5% raises in subsequent fiscal years. However, those future pay raises would depend on state budget negotiations between the governor and lawmakers.

CSU approved a plan this fall that raises tuition by 6% for each of the next five years.

California Faculty Association members picket at California State University Los Angeles on January 22, 2024.

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Brian Feinzimer

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Who's in the union?

Lecturers make up the bulk of the California Faculty Association.

Are the two sides close to a deal? 

This week’s strike, which is scheduled to run through Friday, represents an escalation in the union’s efforts to secure the terms it seeks. In December, faculty at four campuses — including Cal State L.A. and Cal Poly Pomona — staged one-day strikes.

In an emailed statement, the union said it's been met with “disrespect and derision by management.”

Natural Sciences adjunct lecturer Michelle Vanegas stands for a portrait at a California Faculty Association members strike at California State University, Los Angeles.

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During negotiations, “CSU management has only addressed our conflict over salary; they have completely ignored the issues of workload, health and safety concerns, and parental leave,” said Chris Cox, a lecturer at San José State and CFA vice president of racial and social justice.

At a news conference ahead of this week’s systemwide strike, chancellor Mildred García said she and her colleagues are “ready and willing to come back to the bargaining table.”

Faculty members “unquestionably” deserve a pay raise, she added. “But we must work within our financial realities.”

California Faculty Association members picket at California State University Los Angeles on January 22, 2024.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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How will this affect students?

Christina Checel, associate vice chancellor of labor and employee relations, underscored that the CSU “will remain open for business next week” — though “individual faculty members who decide to strike will cancel their own classes.”

She encouraged students across the CSU’s 23 campuses to check their class portals or contact their professors to find out if they intend to hold class.

The CFA has told members it expects many students will join them on the picket line and that the strike is “an opportunity to demonstrate for our students what collective action for justice looks like.”

CSU Students for Quality Education member Ashley Gregory stands for a portrait at a California Faculty Association members strike at California State University Los Angeles on January 22, 2024.

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One of those students is CSU Los Angeles student Martha Mejia, a social work major who transferred from L.A. City College. She said she's picketing in part because she wants her children to go to a university where educators are paid well.

"I have a high schooler," she said. "To think they’re going to come to this kind of atmosphere, that’s not OK."

She plans to be back in class Tuesday; some professors not only didn't cancel class, she said, but are counting attendance against students' grade.

Wasn't another CSU union going on strike?

Teamsters Local 2010, which represents skilled trade workers — electricians, plumbers, repairpeople, etc. — had planned a solidarity strike alongside CFA this coming week. The Teamsters unit had been negotiating its own agreement with Cal State administration.

Cal State University officials announced Friday that both sides had reached a tentative deal.

“I offer my most enthusiastic congratulations to everyone involved in the negotiations and applaud their commitment to the collective bargaining process," García said.

Teamsters Local 2010 said highlights include an immediate 5% general salary increase retroactive to July 1, 2023. It also includes a minimum two-step increase for every member.

The deal means Teamsters Local 2010 will no longer strike alongside CFA. Both groups had authorized a strike back in October.

“We achieved this historic agreement by standing together as Teamsters — and in solidarity with our sister unions at CSU — to take powerful action like CSU has never seen before,” Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 2010 Jason Rabinowitz said.

Tiffany Ujiiye contributed to this article.

Topline:

The case: In September, the city settled a lawsuit brought forward by two brothers in their 70s who said they suffered serious injuries after an LAPD officer crashed into their car. Days before the $18 million settlement was reached, lawyers for the brothers said Feldstein Soto called an expert witness testifying for the plaintiffs and “attempted to ingratiate herself with him and asked him to make a contribution to her political campaign,” according to a sworn declaration to the court by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Robert Glassman.

The response: Feldstein Soto did not respond to an interview request. Her spokesperson said the settlement “had nothing to do” with the expert witness. Her campaign manager told LAist the city attorney had been making a routine fundraising call and did not know the person had a role in the case, nor that there were pending requests for her office to pay him fees.

What Jurado says: In a statement to LAist, Jurado said she wants to “make sure that the city’s legal leadership is guided by integrity and accountability, especially when their choices affect public trust, civic rights and the city’s limited resources."

What’s next: The motion needs to go through a few committees before reaching the full City Council. If it passes, the motion calls for the city attorney to “report to council in closed session within 45 days regarding the ethics breach violation and give updates to the City Council."

Every year in Santa Ana, Luis Cantabrana turns the front of his home into an elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe that draws hundreds of visitors.

Along the front of the house, the multi-colored altar is filled with lights, flowers and a stained-glass tapestry behind a sculpture of the Lady of Guadalupe. Cantabrana’s roof also is lit up with the green, white and red lights that spell out “Virgen de Guadalupe” and a cross.

Visitors are welcomed with music and the smell of roses as they celebrate the saint, but this year’s gathering comes after a dark year for immigrant communities.

Luis Cantabrana stands in front of the stunning altar he built in front of his home in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe. Every year, his display draws hundreds of visitors.

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Why do they celebrate? 

In 1513, the Virgin Mary appeared before St. Juan Diego between Dec. 9 and Dec. 12, asking him to build a church in her honor. Her image — a brown-skinned woman wearing a green veil with her hands together in prayer and an angel at her feet — miraculously appeared on his cloak.

To celebrate in Santa Ana, worshippers gathered late-night Wednesday and in the very early hours Dec. 12 to pray the rosary, sing hymns and celebrate the saint.

Cantabrana has hosted worshippers at his home for 27 years — 17 in Santa Ana.

The altar started out small, he said, and over the years, he added a fabric background, more lights and flowers (lots and lots of flowers).

“It started with me making a promise to la Virgen de Guadalupe that while I had life and a home to build an altar, that I would do it,” Cantabrana said. “Everything you see in photos and videos is pretty, but when you come and see it live, it's more than pretty. It's beautiful.”

The Santa Ana home's elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe draws hundreds of visitors each year.

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Destiny Torres

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LAist

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Gathering in a time of turmoil 

Many also look to the Lady of Guadalupe for protection, especially at a time when federal enforcement has rattled immigrant communities.

“People don’t want to go to work, they don’t want to take their kids to school, but the love we have for our Virgen de Guadalupe,” Cantabrana said. “We see that la Virgen de Guadalupe has a lot of power, and so we know immigration [enforcement] won’t come here.”

Margarita Lopez of Garden Grove has been visiting the altar for three years with her husband. She’s been celebrating the Virgencita since she was a young girl. Honoring the saint is as important now as ever, she said.

“We ask, and she performs miracles,” Lopez said.

Claudia Tapia, a lifelong Santa Ana resident, said the Virgin Mary represents strength.

“Right now, with everything going on, a lot of our families [have] turned and prayed to the Virgen for strength during these times,” Tapia said. “She's a very strong symbol of Mexican culture, of unity, of faith and of resilience.”

See it for yourself

The shrine will stay up into the new year on the corner of Broadway and Camile Street.

California’s unemployment agency kept paying cellphone bills for 4 1/2 years without checking whether its workers actually were using the devices.

That’s how it racked up $4.6 million in fees for mobile devices its workers were not using, according to a new state audit detailing wasteful spending at several government agencies.

The Employment Development Department’s excessive cellphone bills date to the COVID-19 pandemic, when it shifted call center employees to remote work and faced pressure to release benefits to millions of suddenly unemployed Californians.

It acquired 7,224 cellphones and wireless hotspots by December 2020. State auditors analyzed 54 months of invoices since then and found half the devices were unused for at least two years, 25% were unused for three years and 99 of them were never used at all.

The investigation, which auditors opened after receiving a tip, identified 6,285 devices that were unused for at least four consecutive months, and said the department spent $4.6 million on monthly service fees for them.

From the beginning, the department had about 2,000 more cellphones than call center employees, according to the audit. The gap widened over time after the pandemic ended and the department’s staffing returned to its normal headcount.

As of April, the audit said the department had 1,787 unemployment call center employees, but was paying monthly service fees for 5,097 mobile devices.

“Although obtaining the mobile devices during COVID-19 may have been a good idea to serve the public, continuing to pay the monthly service fees for so many unused devices, especially post-COVID-19, was wasteful,” the audit said.

Department officials told auditors they were unaware of the spending, but auditors pointed to regular invoices from Verizon that showed which phones were not being used.

“We would have expected EDD management to have reconsidered the need to pay the monthly service fees for so many devices that had no voice, message, or data usage,” the audit said.

The unemployment department began acting on the auditors’ findings in April, when it canceled service plans for 2,825 devices. It has since implemented a policy to terminate service plans for devices that go unused for 90 days.

The California state auditor highlighted the mobile devices in its regular report on “improper activities by state agencies and employees.” The audit also showed that the California Air Resources Board overpaid an employee who was on extended leave as he prepared to retire by $171,000.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.