‘Ready to strike’: As contract expires, CSU workers demand fair negotiations
Chants calling for a “fair contract” interrupted Sacramento State’s summertime quiet as more than 20 staff members marched around the library quad early Tuesday. With the California State University Employees Union contract expiring June 30, they joined their colleagues at 12 other CSU campuses across the state to demand that the system “negotiate in good faith” on their new contract.
The CSU Employees Union represents 15,000 staff members, 20,000 student assistants and a thousand workers employed by private sector auxiliaries on campuses, making it the largest labor group within the system.
While the contract for healthcare, operations, clerical and technical support services staff ran from July 31, 2022 to June 30, 2026, the student and private sector workers within CSU Employees Union are currently negotiating for their first-ever contracts.
“We are not asking for the world,” said Debra Ahrens, a union organizer and library staff member at Sacramento State. “We understand the situation in the world — everybody is under attack, especially education. We understand inflation is killing everything. All we are asking for is salary justice.”
Their major demands for the next contract include salary raises, reducing dependence on temporary workers and ensuring job security. In addition, the workers are asking that step-based raises be fully funded.
At present, the union is pushing for 11% raises each year for three years — a proposal that the CSU has not yet responded to. Meanwhile, the CSU system proposed to take away workers’ right to strike in negotiations, according to the union. In a statement Tuesday, union representatives said CSU leadership had only shown them “disrespect” at the bargaining table so far.
Representatives of the CSU Chancellor’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The CSU Employees Union’s statewide action Tuesday — which included marches, rallies, sign-making and delivering letters to campus presidents — sought to “demonstrate to university leadership that this year’s contract fight will be like no other,” per a news release from the labor group. Members are even ready to strike if necessary, the release said — an action that would effectively shut down the nation’s largest public university system. The union has never gone on strike before.
At Sacramento State, workers held signs that said “Ready to Strike,” “When We Fight, We Win” and “Higher Ed Not Lower Pay.”
“We haven’t really done these kinds of things during negotiations for previous contracts,” said Derek Cuffe, an employee at Sacramento State and a union representative. “So getting more staff aware and willing to show up will hopefully put more pressure on the CSU negotiators.”
The CSU system is also negotiating new contracts at present with the California Faculty Association, which represents 29,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors, and coaches, and Teamsters Local 2010, which covers 1,100 skilled trades workers at the California State University. CFA’s contract, originally from Feb. 2022 to June 2025, has been extended four times through June 30 and Teamsters’ contract ran from March 4, 2024 to June 30, 2026. This means nearly every labor unit in the CSU will be out of contract July 1.
On Wednesday, CSU Employees Union’s negotiation team will meet with CSU leadership at Cal State Los Angeles for the next round of bargaining. Now that Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed the state budget, workers are hoping negotiations will proceed without delay. In the meantime, they are planning more demonstrations across campuses in July.
