The California Faculty Association (CFA) is the lecturers, professors, librarians, coaches, and counselors at all 23 California State University campuses. To improve student learning conditions, we bargain for fair wages, improved working conditions, and social justice at the CSU. Currently, CFA members are in a tense contract fight with CSU management, and it is possible there will be disruptions of learning activities on campus due to job actions.
The goal is to try to reach a fair agreement without going on strike. However, if an agreement is not reached by the CSU and CFA bargaining teams by the end of the bargaining process, then a strike may occur.
Faculty must first take a vote to call a strike. Even if the vote passes and a strike is called, CSU management can still settle on a fair contract, after which the strike will be called off.
A faculty strike would mean work stoppage in these areas: all classroom instruction, Counseling and Psychological Services, libraries, and athletics. You would not meet for in-person or online classes, and courses will not be rescheduled. Coursework will cease entirely. Faculty will not answer emails, write letters of recommendation, or hold office hours. Faculty will be picketing on one or more campuses, and they will encourage you to avoid campus or join the picket line. More details will be provided as the situation develops.
As mentioned previously, a strike is a type of job action (but the most powerful!) that entails the full stoppage of all faculty work. Other job actions include informational picketing, holding rallies or protests, marches on the boss, petitions, stopping non-essential tasks (e.g., writing letter of recommendation, advising, attending committee meetings, workshops, gatherings, trainings, etc.) and are often used for escalation towards a strike.
The CSU management won’t meet the faculty’s demands on key contract items. For example:
Faculty asked for ongoing annual cost-of-living salary adjustments to keep pace with inflation. Management offered a one-time 3% salary increase.
Faculty asked for protection on Academic Freedom. Management refused.
Faculty asked for protection around new AI technology. Management refused.
Faculty asked for reasonable workload and to set predictable caps/limits to class enrollment. Management refused.
Faculty with temporary contracts asked for more job security. Management refused.
Management is also threatening faculty’s healthcare benefits, seemingly intent on shifting healthcare costs to faculty in 2028.
Bargaining for the common good may come with sacrifices from both faculty and students. The intention is to not harm student grades or graduation but depending on how Chancellor Garcia decides to move forward in bargaining, there may be an impact. If you don’t want to see your grades or graduation impacted, support us on putting pressure on Chancellor Garcia by contacting her at csu-chancellor@calstate.edu and demand that she bargains with CFA in good faith.
Faculty agree. It is unfair for students to pay so much to a university system whose administrators do not prioritize student education. Your money is being spent on their exorbitant raises and nearly $1 million annually in compensation for the Chancellor, an average of $500,000 a year for CSU presidents, as well as is used as collateral for their loans and bonds. They continue to siphon money away from instruction and into the pockets of the wealthy. Faculty are fighting to redirect that money back into the classroom, because faculty working conditions are student learning conditions. If we don’t fight with them, the quality of our education will tank significantly.
Absolutely not. Faculty were adamantly opposed to raising student tuition. The chancellor is using this message strategically as an attempt to drive a wedge between faculty and students and blame faculty for the tuition increase. In truth, management has seriously misallocated both student tuition and fees as well as California taxpayer dollars, leading to students paying more and getting less.
Here’s the quickest way to spot their lie: Students are paying record-high tuition yet getting fewer classes and academic programs to choose from, and fewer faculty members to teach them. So where is your money going? It’s funding an expanding class of administrators, their inflated salaries, and the construction of ultra-expensive and unnecessary buildings whose contractors have ties with the chancellor and other managers. Student tuition is being used as collateral for the CSU’s debt.
If a tentative agreement (TA), is reached, then instruction will resume as usual. It’s important to follow up with your instructors to gauge how your course will proceed moving forward.
Start talking to your professors about this before a protentional strike happens
Ask them how you can support faculty and build student-faculty solidarity
If CFA does go on strike, join the picket line, don’t cross it.
Talk to your family and friends on campus – have them call and send emails to the Chancellor asking that she meets faculty demands.
Join Students for Quality Education (SQE). SQE is an advocacy group that organizes students to work with faculty and the other unions on campus.
Remember, faculty teaching conditions are student learning conditions!
Follow @sqestatewide and @cfa_united on Instagram for more information.
You can also find more details on CFbargaining proposals and the CSU’s response by visiting cfabargaining.org.
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