It can be a formidable challenge to understand the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), or the contract, between CFA and the CSU administration. Yet, the contract is an essential document that protects your rights and benefits at work.

Among the many topics addressed by the contract, some of the most important are those that guarantee "due process" protections for faculty. These protections establish ground rules regarding personnel action files, evaluations and sundry university personnel decisions and actions.

To ensure that faculty get a fair hearing when they feel that due process has been violated, the CBA establishes a grievance procedure for the faculty. If the grievance procedure does not resolve the problem, the contract also contains a binding arbitration clause, which allows faculty to challenge before an impartial third party those administration decisions that are arbitrary, capricious or prejudicial.

For this reason, it is critical that you know your rights, and that you come to CFA when problems arise. You must know your rights in order to stand up for them.

The rights for the faculty that are contained in the contract exist only as a result of the arduous process of collective bargaining between CFA and the CSU administration.