CSU Union Coalition Rallygoers Prepared to Fight for a Fair Contract

With pressure mounting across the state from faculty and staff fighting for a fair contract, four CSU campuses—Sacramento State, Cal Poly Pomona, CSU Northridge (CSUN), and CSU Los Angeles (CSULA)—recently took part in “Five Unions, One Fight” labor coalition rallies to send Chancellor Mildred García a clear message: we are united in our contract fight for fair pay and better working conditions for all CSU employees.  

After incredible organizing from our chapter leaders and member activists, we met our goal for the CFA Solidarity Pledge, demonstrating that faculty are ready to do what it takes to get the contract we deserve.  

This was amplified by the hundreds of faculty, staff, and students who showed up at each of the rallies, after growing increasingly concerned about the short-sighted and unsustainable decisions made by the chancellor and the CSU Board of Trustees. Their mismanagement has cost the university hundreds of millions of dollars, and they’re jeopardizing the future of our public higher education system, including the students and broader communities who depend on it. 

At the CSULA rally, Miranda Sheffield, CFA Los Angeles member and Pan African Studies lecturer, shared that, as a CSULA alum, the university is her second home and that she is ready to fight for our students.  

“As a lecturer, I know what it’s like to only be given the option of teaching an 80-person course and feeling the weight of having to teach that class knowing that I’m not going to be able to have the full support that I need,” said Sheffield. “What today is about is standing in solidarity and knowing that we need to do our part because students are doing their part with everything they face. Now, more than anything, it’s about solidarity. We are setting the tone for the future educators who need to know that this is how you get your demands met.” 

While management doesn’t hesitate to increase their own salaries and compensation packages, they claim that faculty make more than enough money, with an average salary of $66,000 annually for full-time lecturers (which the majority of lecturers are not), while campus presidents average over $500,000 a year.  

“Despite a 7% increase in funding this fiscal year and billions in reserves, the Chancellor’s narrative is that there is never enough money,” said Bonnie Thorne, CFA Pomona president and psychology lecturer, who spoke at Cal Poly Pomona’s rally last Tuesday. “CSU management will not pay its workers a living wage. The Chancellor’s Office has offered our CSUEU colleagues a paltry, insulting 1.2% raise. She has offered unions a one-time bonus that does not go to our base salary. With the current offer, we can’t even keep up with inflation.” 

What makes all of this worse isn’t just that management is refusing to pay faculty a fair salary, but they’re now trying to shift the cost of healthcare onto us as well. 

“We are very concerned about any attempt to jeopardize or minimize our healthcare,” said Ron Coleman, CFA Sacramento member and a biology professor, who showed up proudly in red during their campus rally. “We don’t get paid a vast sum of money, but we have good healthcare. It’s extremely important to us as individuals, it’s important to our families, and it’s critical to our students that we are healthy and taken care of, so we can take care of them.” 

Bita Rivas, CFA Sacramento member and a professor in the Mental Health Program, was also present at the rally and shared why supporting CFA is incredibly important.  

“It is a privilege to have a union and to be a union member, having come from a non-union institution and state,” said Rivas. “I think it is easy for our members here in California to take the union for granted, since it even covers those that may not be active and protects all of us. But in order for us to win a strong contract, we need membership and we need participation. I will do anything to support my union, and I appreciate all that our members do to advocate for us.” 

Over a hundred CSUN workers marched across their campus chanting, “A living wage is our right!” while holding signs calling for solidarity while demanding an end to management’s corporate greed. 

All of the CSU unions are in different stages of bargaining for a new contract, but all of us feel that management isn’t bargaining in ways that respect their workers. We will continue to organize together to push back against attacks on our rights, dignity, and shared values. When management comes for one of us, they come for all of us.