CFA Members Picket in Solidarity with Teamsters Members on Strike

Thousands of union members from Teamsters Local 2010, CFA, CSU Employees Union (CSUEU), Academic Professional of California (APC), UAW Local 4123, as well as community members rallied across the rainy state to picket at all 22 CSU campuses in hopes of helping the Teamsters secure a fair contract.

Lily House-Peters, vice president of CFA Long Beach and CSU Long Beach professor, has been and will continue to be on the strike line.

“It is very wet, cold and windy, but we feel the immense warmth of solidarity and collective love from everyone who has made great effort to come out and support our union siblings in their fight to receive the wages they are due! It is unfortunate that we have to be out here on the picket line again after they’ve already won their contract demands from a previous strike, but it is nevertheless incredibly powerful to witness everyone gathered here together for a single cause: justice, respect and fair wages for workers,” House-Peters said.

Teamsters members are demanding that CSU management honor the agreement they made at the bargaining table to bring all CSU trade workers up to their appropriate target steps. This was a promise ratified in their last contract, yet management refuses to do so. They have broken their promise and denied workers what is rightfully theirs while they do not hesitate to approve bloated salary increases for executives.

“The Teamsters’ fights for better working conditions gives us more power to fight for the same gains. Their wins strengthen the bargaining power of all unions here today.”

– Alma Flores, CFA Sacramento chapter co-president

The strikes have been impactful. Some faculty have either cancelled their classes or are bringing their students to the picket line during class time. Others are supporting the strike on their days off.

On many campuses, work on construction sites have stopped, UPS and FedEx mail deliveries have been blocked, traffic has been slowed to a crawl, and bus drivers represented by Teamsters Local 848 have been rerouted.

At Channel Islands, several elevators were down. When campus administrators called a contractor to fix the issues, he turned away as soon as he saw the picket line. A power outage that no one was available to fix has also required the campus to run on a backup generator.

At Sacramento State, administrators are requiring managers to work 12-hour shifts to prevent any interruptions to their heating systems.

All of these events have caused massive inconveniences to employers and will lead to tens of millions of dollars lost and further contract disputes with other contractors or employers that do business with the CSU.

During a Wednesday rally at Sacramento State, CFA President Margarita Berta- Ávila reminded the crowd that it is the students, faculty, and staff that make up the People’s University.

“The working conditions of everyone here is what makes the learning conditions of our students,” she said. “If our working conditions are not to par, you better believe that the students’ learning conditions are not there either.”

At that same rally, Alma Flores, co-president of CFA Sacramento and Sacramento State professor, urged solidarity with each other.

“The Teamsters’ fights for better working conditions gives us more power to fight for the same gains,” Flores said. “Their wins strengthen the bargaining power of all unions here today.”

The Teamsters strike is set to continue until tomorrow, February 20, unless management agrees to the fair and just demands that our siblings are fighting for. Our members will continue to show up in solidarity as they have always done, rain or shine.