Power

Faculty Strike Looms on California Campuses After Report Backs Wage Demands

California State University faculty agreed during the recession to forgo negotiated raises and take a 10 percent pay cut due to furloughs. Union leaders say now is the time to recoup those losses.

"Many of my colleagues juggle multiple classes on campuses spanning the Southern California region just to make ends meet," Nina Flores, a part-time lecturer at Cal State Long Beach, told Rewire in an email. Shutterstock

The faculty labor union for the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system is calling for a strike next month, after an independent fact finder announced Monday that the union’s wage demands have merit.

In a 16-page report, the fact finder urged CSU trustees to award faculty a 5 percent raise and to give “step” increases to the 43 percent of faculty whose earnings lag behind those of more recent hires.

The release of the non-binding report marks the end of the statutory bargaining process, meaning CSU faculty can now strike. Officials from the California Faculty Association (CFA), which represents 23,000 lecturers, faculty members, counselors, coaches, and librarians, announced plans for a systemwide strike from April 13 to 15 and April 18 to 19 if a settlement deal isn’t reached by then.

“A neutral, outside voice has confirmed that these raises are affordable, reasonable, justified, and necessary,” CFA President Jennifer Eagan wrote in response to the report.

Bradley Wells, CSU associate vice chancellor of business and finance, disagreed, writing that the recommended wage hikes would cost the system an extra $110 million per year that it hasn’t budgeted for.

CSU officials are offering faculty a 2 percent raise.

CSU Strike Explained

Sixty percent of CSU faculty work part time, earning $28,000 annually on average, according to data from the union and the CSU system. Full-time CSU faculty make $46,000 a year on average, compared to CSU managers, who make $111,000. CSU presidents earn an average of $321,000 per year.

The report calls on the California governor and legislature to come up with the money for the wage hikes by delaying state projects or shifting earmarked funds to the CSU system.

“Many of my colleagues juggle multiple classes on campuses spanning the Southern California region just to make ends meet,” Nina Flores, a part-time lecturer at Cal State Long Beach, told Rewire in an email. “Wage issues are significant for lecturers because we are hired at low rates, and often work semester to semester with little job security.”

Flores said that part-time workers like her often juggle multiple jobs to get by.

“I’m among the lucky ones because all of my classes are on one campus,” Flores said. “However, I am also among the 72 percent of CSU faculty who rely on a secondary source of income beyond teaching responsibilities.”

CSU faculty members agreed during the 2008 recession to forgo negotiated raises and take a 10 percent pay cut due to furloughs, as the fact finder’s report noted. With the state’s economy on the upswing, union leaders say now is the time to begin to recoup those losses.

Wage negotiations stalled last year when the union and CSU representatives reached an impasse, prompting the preparation of the fact-finding report. Bonnie Castrey, a Southern California arbitrator and mediator, chaired the three-person fact-finding panel.

Speaking to the Sacramento Bee, CSU Chancellor Timothy White acknowledged that many faculty members make less than their peers at comparable universities.

“It’s not a question of desire, it’s a question of the ability to do so. And I’m not going to spend money I don’t have,” White said. “We have to live within our means.”