As CSU Faculty Vote On New Deal, Many Wonder If There's A Better Option

On a rainy Monday morning last month, Robert Chlala joined his colleagues at a picket line at Cal State Long Beach. It was the first day of the systemwide faculty strike over salary, parental leave, mental health resources for students, and other issues.

Chlala, an assistant sociology professor, was quickly drenched. But when he looks back on that morning, he remembers feeling elated. Faculty kept a boombox blaring, cars honked in support, students joined in solidarity.

“This is working,” Chlala thought. When he went home that afternoon, he was excited to rejoin the picket line the next day. Chlala and his colleagues expected better weather and better turnout.

But that night, Chlala got an unexpected email: The union had reached a tentative deal with CSU management. The strike was over.

Chlala was bewildered. And after reading more about the deal, he became upset. He felt the agreement fell short of what faculty had been fighting for. Why, he wondered, did CFA leadership call off the strike just as it was gaining momentum?

From Feb. 12–18, CSU faculty are voting by simple majority on the tentative agreement. If accepted, the deal would raise wages and provide more paid family leave.

LAist interviewed faculty who received news of the tentative agreement with tears, frustration, anger, disbelief, and acceptance, and attended faculty town halls that offered similar experiences.

“Let's redirect this momentum into getting back to the bargaining table and getting a better deal,” Chlala said.

For him and many other faculty, the initial shock over the tentative agreement has given way to a resolve to vote it down.

'Desperately needed pay equity'

CSU is the nation's largest university system. The California Faculty Association represents its 29,000 coaches, counselors, lecturers, librarians, and professors.

Leading up to the strike, CFA had been pressing for a 12% salary increase; CSU had offered a series of three 5% raises, two of which would be contingent on state funding.

The tentative agreement between CSU and CFA includes:

• A 5% general salary increase for all faculty retroactive to July 1, 2023.
• A 5% general salary Increase for all faculty on July 1 in 2024, if the state doesn't reduce base funding to CSU.
• A higher salary floor for the lowest-paid faculty, who will also receive a 2.65% “service salary increase” (which affects about a third of union members).
• Access to a union representative when dealing with campus police. 
• An increase in paid parental leave, from six to 10 weeks.

Just over half of faculty work part-time and more than half of them don't have the long-term job security afforded to those with a tenure-track position. Lecturers may work as little as one quarter; but after six years of employment, they’re eligible for three-year contracts. In an emailed statement, CSU said just under two-thirds of its lecturers are eligible for health, dental, and vision insurance, in addition to other benefits.

On social media, the union has been promoting the deal by saying it will usher in “a 10% raise in the next 6 months.” But, given the state’s projected $38 billion deficit, some faculty worry that the conditional 5% pay raise may not pan out.

LAist reached out to state leaders for comment. A spokesperson for Gavin Newsom said the governor had nothing to add. In an email, Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire was non-committal about the budget, but said: “This tentative agreement ... helps advance desperately needed pay equity for some of the best and brightest educators in America." LAist did not receive a response from Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas’ office by the time of publication.

Some faculty also say it’s unfair to expect them to accept increases that don't keep pace with inflation — especially when Chancellor Mildred García got a 27% pay bump when she took the job last year, with a stipend for rent.

Students walk on campus at Cal State Long Beach.

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Harry Katz, a professor of collective bargaining at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, reviewed the deal’s bullet points.

“That's not a horrible increase, given the financial pressures the California State University System faces,” he said. (To address a $1.5 billion budget gap, the system’s board of trustees approved five years of tuition hikes last fall.)

The tentative agreement gets squishier about other priorities. It “acknowledges the importance” of moving all campuses to a 1,500:1 students-to-counselor ratio. And it offers only a commitment to following state code as it relates to access to lactation spaces and gender-inclusive restrooms.

'Still out here listening'

Kate Ozment, an associate English professor at Cal Poly Pomona, is among faculty who’ve organized for higher pay and better working conditions. She said she cried when students joined her at a one-day strike last December, moved by their act of solidarity. “This is the best teaching day of my life,” she thought.

On top of potential gains, Ozment believes the collective bargaining process has served as a good learning opportunity for students.

Ozment, an associate English professor at Cal Poly Pomona, is leaning toward a "Yes" vote — but she's open to hearing from colleagues who oppose the deal.

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“I can assign them things about class consciousness, we can talk about the fact that they have been historically underfunded because of their backgrounds — but it is different to say, and ‘Here's what you do to push for [something] better,’” she said.

If the tentative agreement passes, Ozment estimates she’ll get just over a 12% raise — the amount the union had been pressing for since last spring. She said she plans to vote “Yes.”

“For me, this is a great deal,” she said. “But I am still out here listening to the people that I work with, and I will turn down a great deal for me if it's not a good deal for everyone.”

'It looks like a win'

LAist also shared the CFA’s tentative agreement with Chris Tilly, a UCLA professor with labor organizing experience. His research focuses on labor markets and inequality.

“To me, it looks like a win,” he said.

Getting a retroactive raise is “unusual,” Tilly said. He also lauded the faculty union for securing raises for its lowest-paid members.

“That's something that unions don't always attend to, but is really important,” he said. “We have growing inequality. And, in any workplace, the people at the bottom are the people that are struggling the most, and the fact that the union put a priority on that and won that is really a very positive thing.”

“There's some risk involved” when it comes to the 5% raise conditioned on the state budget, Tilly added. But Newsom, “unlike [former governor] Jerry Brown, has been relatively supportive of higher education.” The governor's latest budget proposal actually offers a slight bump to CSU.

“I don’t think it’s a big gamble,” Tilly said.

In a follow-up email, Tilly noted that if the budget does get cut, "the Cal State administration does not just get to take away the 5% raise — the agreement says it goes back to bargaining. Since the administration now knows that faculty are prepared to take action if their expectations are not met, I can’t see the 5% getting bargained down a great deal even if the budget does get cut.”

'We've seen what other folks can win'

Shortly after the strike ended, faculty across the CSU system started gathering to process the rapid shift in strategy, in person and online.

Sociology professor Vanessa Stout joined about 100 other people at a lunchtime meeting at Cal State L.A. on Jan. 26. She planned to vote “No” on the tentative agreement.

“We are here for our students, but at the same time we won't be exploited because of it,” Stout said.

That same week, faculty at Cal State Long Beach held two virtual town halls. Combined, they had about 450 participants. At the meetings, some faculty said they felt betrayed by union leadership. Others were confused about what kind of raise they could expect if the deal goes through. Many said they were disappointed that the language around counselors is more of an aspiration than a commitment.

At each meeting, the hosts conducted straw polls to gauge faculty sentiment. On both occasions, most said they were leaning toward a “No” vote.

Chalala is among CSU faculty who plan to vote against the tentative agreement.

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Rank-and-file members have been observing other unions’ collective bargaining efforts, including SAG-AFTRA and UPS, said Chlala, the assistant sociology professor.

“We've seen what other folks can win, and we're ready to get back to bargaining. And if we need to, we'll strike again,” he said.

'Zero guidance'

Alfredo Carlos is a labor studies professor at Cal State Dominguez Hills and part of the CFA leadership team on campus. On the first day of the strike, he was up at 4 a.m. More than 100 faculty signed up for the morning shift, and he wanted to make sure everything went smoothly.

Carlos witnessed colleagues who were typically less engaged step up to lead picket lines and chants. Former students and their families, along with members of other unions, also joined faculty in solidarity.

The strike “was transformative,” Carlos said, “in the sense that it brought a lot of people into the process of our union.”

But immediately following the tentative agreement, he added, there was “zero guidance from statewide leadership” on how to communicate the terms of the deal.

Carlos is telling members to vote their conscience. He’s still weighing his decision.

“Either outcome is not ideal for me,” he added. “So, you know, if I end up voting ‘Yes,’ it's not going to be an enthusiastic ‘Yes.’”

'The best deal we were going to get'

Meghan O’Donnell, a history lecturer at Cal State Monterey Bay, is part of the faculty union’s board of directors. She’s aware of dissatisfaction among her colleagues, but remains proud of the deal. It was “very, very hard-won,” she said.

Even after a four-campus faculty strike last December, union leaders “continued to see very little response from the Chancellor’s bargaining team,” O’Donnell said.

Then, on the first day of the systemwide strike, CSU approached the union with an offer that showed “significant movement.” It included “areas that the Chancellor's office had refused to even discuss with us,” she said, including raising the salary floor for lowest-paid faculty, increased family leave, and the right to have a union representative when interacting with campus police.

Students exit class at Cal Poly Pomona. Last December, faculty here were part of a four-campus strike.

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“We really did feel that this was going to be the best deal we were going to get,” O’Donnell said.

To help rank-and-file members estimate their potential raises under the tentative agreement, the union created a four-page flowchart. Union leaders have also been canvassing membership concerns at informational sessions.

Faculty have shared a range of emotions at those sessions, she said. “There's been some folks who have expressed a lot of opposition to the tentative agreement in those meetings, and we've tried to be respectful . . . But we also wanted to make sure that there was space for folks to share feelings of pride and happiness.”

“We represent 29,000 faculty, and it's hard to find consensus with such a huge diverse group of folks. But I think what's playing out right now is healthy for our union, and I think it's showing how engaged and how passionate people are about this process,” she added.

‘It’s up to us as members’

Regardless of the vote outcome, Carlos and other faculty said members have an opportunity to become more engaged in the union and to change what they don’t like.

“Many of us who organize the rank-and-file town halls absolutely believe that the union is the best mechanism for us to fight for quality public education,” Chlala said. But “the CFA is an organization like any other. It has good and bad parts to it, bureaucracies and otherwise, and it's up to us as members to direct that.”

Katz, the collective bargaining professor at Cornell, said post-deal discord is not unusual. If workers aren’t satisfied with a tentative agreement that’s being offered, he added, “that doesn't mean collective bargaining has failed. That's just a natural part of the process.” In 2021, he noted, John Deere workers rejected a tentative agreement with employers — and they did so more than once.

UCLA’s Tilly agreed. “[H]eated debate among [CFA] membership is a good thing—democratic unions with engaged memberships are healthier for it,” he said.