Why some CSU faculty are ready for a strike: 'The last contract sucked'

The union that represents 29,000 faculty members is asking its members to authorize a strike after negotiations with California State University reached an impasse. Members have till November 19 to vote.

The California Faculty Association last went on strike in January 2024.

Now they are back at the bargaining table. While the union seeks pay raises, members say this negotiation is also about all the ways higher education has changed since they won their last contract: That includes provisions guaranteeing academic freedom — in the face of pressure from the Trump administration over DEI and and artificial intelligence guardrails.

“This is the boldest proposal we've had as a bargaining team, as a union,” said Elaine Villanueva Bernal, who teaches chemistry at Cal State Long Beach and also serves on the bargaining team.

She and other members of the union rallied this past week in support of the authorization vote, one of many such demonstrations across the state.

They said the union is fighting for members to decide whether or not to use artificial intelligence and to “not to be replaced with AI, for our work not to be evaluated by AI.”

Even if the vote passes, that doesn’t mean a strike will happen; contract talks can still continue.

Elaine Villanueva Bernal teaches chemistry at Cal State Long Beach and serves on the CFA bargaining team.

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In an emailed statement, Amy Bentley-Smith, a spokesperson for the university system, said CSU has reached agreements with four other unions “demonstrating that meaningful agreements can be achieved through collective bargaining.”

“We believe that continued negotiations, rather than a strike, offer the best path toward reaching a fair and sustainable agreement with CFA. Our priority remains supporting our faculty, serving our students and avoiding unnecessary disruption to their education,” she said.

Why is another strike possible?

In January 2024, faculty members went on strike across the state, disrupting classes for around 500,000 students. The strike lasted one day — to the disbelief of many union members.

“The last contract sucked. The union caved after one day. We had all the momentum of faculty here and a lot of support to keep the strike going,” said Helen Hood Scheer, a cinematic arts professor at Cal State Long Beach. “However, I will say that at some of the other CSUs that are not as healthy as we are, I think some other people felt like it was a good contract.”

Helen Hood Scheer and her friend came out to a rally in Cal State Long Beach to signal their support for a strike authorization vote after negotiations between the California Faculty Association and CSU reached an impasse.

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She said she drove over an hour on a day she does not have to teach to be on campus for the rally to “let the chancellor know that we’re serious.” Hood Scheer said some professors are living below the poverty line, while CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia makes close to $1 million annually.

 Lily Housepeters, an associate professor of geography at Cal State Long Beach and vice president of the CFA Long Beach chapter, said the bargaining team has made changes because some members were ready to strike longer and were disappointed with some of the contract gains.

“This time around, we have a much more inclusive bargaining team. We've expanded our bargaining team. We have members of our bargaining team from every single campus,” she said.

The impact of the Trump administration on faculty

The landscape of higher education has also changed since the last contract.

Contract negotiations have centered federal funding cuts to research and to grants that sought to increase representation of historically excluded groups on campus.

“ We should be able to teach the classes that we need to teach, that we want to teach, that students actually demand, without government or political interference,” said Melissa Hidalgo, a lecturer in women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Cal State Long Beach. “When your federal government tries to tell you that certain subjects are off the table now because they don't like them, when you can't talk about things like gender and race anymore, when we start to have directives coming from the top down, this is how we know that our, our academic freedom is under attack.”

CFA members and supporters rally in support of a strike authorization vote after negotiations between the union and CSU reached an impasse.

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Yusra Farzan

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LAist

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Deborah Ham, a retired education professor, came out to support the rally on Tuesday at CSU Long Beach. As someone who has taught for over 35 years, Ham said, the attacks on education are nothing like she’s seen before.

“I feel an attack on our work, on our way of life, on our way of believing, on our humanity, and it's very, very painful. As someone who taught children and English as a second language to immigrants, to see the attack on everyone is just Nazism,” she said. “It just is frightening to me, and I don't like seeing this in my community. And so that's another reason why I am here, to protect our community.”

Ronald Loewe, a professor of anthropology said academic freedom protections are important because he has seen pushback on faculty and students who have spoken out in support of Palestinian rights.

At rallies including the one on campus on Tuesday, faculty members use amplified sound and it’s something that has been done for years, he said. But, during a protest in support of Palestinian rights,  ”five faculty members were sanctioned for using amplified sound. There's been a lot of attempts to kind of pick on faculty members and students who've spoken out in favor of Palestine or have been critical of Israel.”

A spokesperson for Cal State Long Beach told LAist no faculty member has been disciplined for taking part in actions related to Palestinian advocacy.

AI has changed contract negotiations

Loewe also wants to see strong artificial intelligence guardrails in the new contract.

“I think that the university has really excluded us from having kind of any input or any say in the development of artificial intelligence on campus. It's affecting our teaching, it's affecting student learning, and it's making people stupid,” he said.

The CSU system recently renewed a controversial contract with OpenAI that costs $13 million annually, a decision Loewe and Housepeters say faculty were not consulted on.

 ”We also see lots of other spending throughout the CSU that we would argue is wasteful or is not in priority with faculty working conditions, which are student learning conditions,” Housepeters said.

During the recent heat waves that pummeled Southern California, for instance, she said some faculty had to work in offices without air conditioning where temperatures hit over 90 degrees.

The union, Housepeters said, is also fighting for improved working conditions and reducing workload for some faculty members. She said the union wants “ a transformational contract where tenure-track faculty would receive more time for research, and our lecturer faculty would receive more time for service because currently all of their service is uncompensated.”

Some students are joining the rallies

Joining the faculty members in support of their fight for a new contract were students Christina Henry and Zack Medway.

Henry, who is studying history, said she hoped to become a professor one day.

“I think it's important that our professors get a living wage. They do so much to set us up for our future careers. Their career should be rewarding for them as well,” she said.

“ If we truly want to value education as a country,” said Medway, a graduate student, “we need to honor and respect the people who do the work and the people who do the learning, and know that learning is uncomfortable and necessary.”