CA lawmakers want to close a loophole they say allowed CSU to withhold raises
Assembly members said the California State University system exploited a loophole in state labor law that allowed it to back out of contractually obligated raises last year. California lawmakers are getting behind a bill to tweak the law that governs higher education labor relations to ensure the university system has to honor agreed-upon salary increases.
“Year after year, the California State University exploits a loophole in the law to dodge accountability and blame me and my colleagues for not keeping their end of the deal,” said Assemblymember Liz Ortega, D-San Leandro, on the west steps of the Capitol on Wednesday announcing Assembly Bill 1818.
The current law states that if the Legislature does not fully fund the university system’s budget, CSU can reopen contracts with employees to negotiate new terms for workers’ salaries. Ortega said that her legislation would close this loophole and require the CSU honor pay increases even when the Legislature makes budget changes.
David Alvarado, a spokesperson for CSU’s Office of the Chancellor, said in a statement that the university system “does not comment on proposed legislation before fully evaluating bill language and its potential implications.”
When the Legislature cut the university system’s budget by 3% last year to help address the state’s broader budget problem, university officials said they couldn’t afford to pay salary increases to Teamsters Local 2010 members that they were supposed to receive in 2025.
Instead of awarding the salary increases, the CSU offered one-time raises due to the budget constraints. CSU accepted a $144 million zero-interest loan from the state that must be repaid by July 2026 to help cover salary expenses, including bonuses for university employees.
The one-time bonuses came as a blow because the union had long fought for those pay increases. Workers went on strike in 2023 to secure them.
The union is planning another strike next Tuesday to protest the withholding of raises. Teamsters Local 2010 represents over 26,000 people who work in California schools and universities. The local represents 1,100 skilled trades workers who are spread across CSU campuses.
“We’re not asking for a handout. We’re asking for our 2% raise, which we were already supposed to be given,” Xavier Morgado, an electrician who works at San Francisco State University, said Wednesday.
The withholding of raises felt particularly egregious to workers after the CSU’s board of trustees approved raises for 13 university presidents last year. Those pay increases were awarded after a study found that those executives were paid “well below” that of leaders at peer institutions.
Those pay bumps for administrators, which ranged from 5% to 20%, have irked several lawmakers and prompted separate legislation to reverse those salary increases.
“It is outrageous that the California State University system is approving massive pay increases for administrators already making more than our governor or the U.S. president while raising student tuition and fees, cutting classes and student services, and not honoring pay agreements made with their staff,” Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens, D-Sunnyvale, said in a Wednesday statement announcing Assembly Bill 1831, which would cap CSU administrators’ pay at 125% of the governor’s salary and prohibit raises when the university system increases tuition.
This story was originally published February 11, 2026 at 4:48 PM.
