SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Starting next week, from Monday, Jan. 22-Friday, Jan. 27, members of the California Faculty Association (CFA) working for the California State University (CSU) system will leave their classrooms for the picket lines.
After the latest rounds of negotiations, the CSU system said effective Jan. 31, it will give a five percent pay increase to its 29,000 workers that belong to CFA.
However, CFA said that's not going to be enough.
The CFA union embodies tenured instructional faculty, lecturers, librarians, counselors, and coaches, across all 23 campuses in the CSU system, including San Diego State University and CSU San Marcos.
In a release CFA posted Jan. 18, the union said it was calling for the following:
- 12-percent pay raises that keep ahead of inflation.
- Pay equity and raising the floor for our lowest-paid faculty.
- Manageable workloads that allow for more support and engagement with students.
- More counselors to improve students’ much-needed access to mental health services.
- Expanding paid parental leave to a full semester.
- Accessible lactation and milk storage spaces for lactating faculty.
- Safe gender-inclusive restrooms and changing rooms.
- Safety provisions for faculty interacting with university police on our campuses.
Chris Cox, CFA Vice President of Racial & Social Justice, North, and San Jose State University lecturer said the demands are nothing new to the CSU system.
"CSU management has only addressed our conflict over salary," Cox said. "They have completely ignored the issues of workload, health and safety concerns, and parental leave. Management wouldn’t even consider our proposals for appropriate class sizes, proper lactation spaces for nursing parents, gender inclusive bathroom spaces, and a clear delineation of our rights when interacting with campus authorities,So now they're going to strike
Amy Bentley-Smith, Director, Strategic Communications and Public Affairs said in regards to the strike, "The CSU respects the rights of CFA to engage in strike activity and takes seriously any such planned union action. CSU will continue to meet its educational commitment to students. All CSU campuses will remain open during a strike to serve students and have contingency plans in place to maintain university operations. Our hope is to minimize any disruptions and that the strike poses no hardship on our students."
While the CSU system will be open during the strike next week, there will be one exception. Faculty members can cancel their individual classes if they decided to honor the strike.
To see SDSU's information on the strike, click here: https://www.sdsu.edu/strike
To see CSU San Marcos' information on the strike, click here: https://www.csusm.edu/strike-info/
