Management Wants to Talk. But We're Not Backing Down

On the same day we launched our Strike Authorization Vote, and just before we were scheduled to begin the first day of our factfinding hearings, our Bargaining Team received a letter from CSU management inviting us to come back to the table, primarily to discuss salary. Management could have changed its lowball offer (unchanged since November 2025) at the table in bargaining and through mediation. Now that we have taken the steps to advance the campaign and escalate, CSU management is offering us something “new.” 

We understand that the invitation came because CSU administrators wanted CFA to receive a slightly improved salary offer than the Chancellor offered CFA through bargaining and mediation. In resuming bargaining, management would like to offer salary terms similar to ones agreed to by four much smaller CSU unions that have tentatively agreed to salary terms. APC, SUPA, IUOE, and UAW have each agreed to similar terms. 

Their letter suggested that the bargaining team look to what other unions in the CSU have recently settled for, including a one-time 5% bonus in lieu of a retroactive raise for 2025 and a 4% raise this year at time of ratification and a second 4% raise next July. What they’re actually offering is only about a 2.66% increase over three years 2025-26, 2026-27 and 2027-28. This is a net loss in buying power in relation to inflation. We are right to be suspicious. 

We need to be clear about what this invitation to come back to the bargaining table actually means. It is an attempt to narrow the conversation to salary and pull us out of our necessary work to prepare for a strike if management fails to settle a fair contract on all the important issues facing faculty, including Workload, Appointment, Academic Freedom, and guardrails around Artificial Intelligence. 

The bargaining team is willing to meet for meaningful and true negotiations once factfinding has concluded on November 13, 2026. This “invitation” is not sufficient enough to stop CFA from going forward to factfinding and concluding the Strike Authorization Vote. 

We know that pay is a critical issue, but our salary proposal is only one part of what this fight is about. Management’s “invitation” to resume bargaining conveniently ignores our much larger contract fight, and accepting it would mean abandoning the other issues that matter to the future of this institution. 

Management’s Letter Ignores Major Issues 

Healthcare: Management has proposed shifting more health care costs onto faculty. A raise that is immediately consumed by higher premiums and copays is not a raise. We are fighting to protect benefits, not trade them away for a short-term pay bump. Accepting changes to health care coverage could potentially cost faculty thousands of dollars a year. 

AI: We have proposed a stand-alone article to ensure AI does not undermine our intellectual property or erode our professional judgment on when AI is or is not appropriate to use in the classroom or other faculty work environments. Management has not agreed to meaningful guardrails. A salary bump does not protect a faculty member from an algorithm determining raises, promotions, etc. 

Appointments and Lecturer Job Security: We are fighting for real pathways to permanency and improved job security for lecturer faculty. Too many of our colleagues live semester to semester, without the stability they need to serve students well. Salary alone does not improve job security for lecturer faculty members. 

Workload: Faculty workloads have spiraled. Not just in teaching but in service, advising, and administrative burdens. We have proposed clear workload definitions. Management’s economic offer does nothing to address the conditions that drive burnout and push educators out of the CSU. 

Academic Freedom: In a political climate that increasingly targets educators, we have proposed explicit new protections for academic freedom in instruction, research, and expression. Management’s invitation says nothing about safeguarding faculty from retaliation or censorship. 

The Time to Fight Is Now 

 

Management inviting us back to the table is a testament to our strength both statewide and at the chapter level. In less than two days, thousands of members have already voted on whether to allow the CFA Board to authorize a strike. We’re holding successful campus actions and Millie Watch events with our union siblings across the state. And we’re garnering a lot of media coverage of these events, helping to educate the larger public about our contract and what we’re fighting for—ourselves as faculty, as well as our students. 

We declared impasse because management refused to engage seriously with our proposals. The fact-finding process exists precisely to examine the full contract, not just the article on salary. We will not short-circuit that process for an offer that asks us to trade away our other priorities for a salary number that doesn’t keep ahead of inflation. Nor will we scale back on our efforts to be strike ready if necessary. For CFA and other unions, working conditions must be covered in new CBAs along with better salary offers. 

We will not let management use their salary offer as a ceiling for our contract. We deserve a contract that meets our full needs as faculty members.