The CFA Bargaining Team continues to work toward greater rights, respect, and justice, as well as structural change to our next Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

At a February 4 session with CSU management, the CFA team submitted two proposals.

The first expands Article 37 to strengthen the ways the CSU addresses the impact of racism on our campuses by designating alternatives to campus police on non-criminal matters, and appointing faculty to serve in ombudsperson roles for employee conflicts.  Often when university police are called, disputes can be escalated rather than resolved. Alternative resources should be available to address incidents with more safety and effectiveness.

CFA’s Health and Safety proposal also seeks to update the CBA to provide for emergency response programs at all campuses in light of emergencies and campus closures due to natural disasters, including recent wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic. With climate change, natural disasters are likely to increase, and the CBA should reflect this.  We’re thinking about faculty health overall and how we experience health and safety in different ways.

The second CFA proposal increases parental leave from a current maximum of 30 days to a minimum of a full semester/two quarters.  CSU’s current policy is woefully inadequate and uncompetitive for today’s standards.  Our Parental Leave proposal addresses many concerns Unit 3 members have about the impact of family planning on career advancement and seeks to create greater equity for women and particularly female faculty of color.

CSU management has consistently resisted expansions to parental leave for faculty in the last decade.  Over that time, CFA members have successfully fought to achieve greater and more flexible parental leave, and extend it to all faculty.  We continue to push for what is equitable for all CFA members.

These proposals bring our contract into the 21st Century, allowing faculty to be nimble, flexible, and better weather emergent events, ultimately to better serve our students.

“These proposals have their origins in the Fall 2019 bargaining survey, where members expressed the need for substantial changes to parental leave as well as support for faculty or color,” said Kevin Wehr, CFA Vice President. “We have heard how our BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) faculty often feel unsafe on campus, and particularly Black men in relation to police. Our recent proposals are grounded in principles of anti-racism and social justice, and our intention is to further the goals of respect and justice for faculty.”

CSU management’s tone at the table remains unchanged: disrespect of faculty and degradation of our rights. At the February 4 session, they proposed extending the length of time the CSU takes to respond to several steps in the grievance process. The proposal, however, does not extend the time that members have to file a grievance. The CSU also proposed, in more explicit terms, use of email for grievances and taking out the minimum number of arbitrators currently specified as 20.

The management team also proposed eliminating the ability to grieve on issues of discrimination, therefore barring faculty from arbitrating discrimination complaints. Instead, these cases would go entirely through the Executive Order (EO) 1096 process. EO 1096’s administration findings would be the end of the line. The proposal does not preclude faculty from filing complaints with California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and/or litigating claims of discrimination through civil actions.

Visit CFAbargaining.org for negotiations updates and resources.

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