For those living in Chico, or having passed through downtown in the last couple weeks, you may have noticed the picket lines of Chico State faculty on strike.
The planned five day strike began on Monday, January 22 when faculty members and staff did not show up to work that day across all 23 California State University campuses. Classes were not canceled, but neither students nor staff were encouraged to attend school or work for the full school week to participate in the strike.
The strike was organized by the California Faculty Association (CFA), an anti-racism social justice union of 29000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors, and coaches at the CSU. The CFA had been advocating for living wages and better working conditions and benefits for CSU staff and faculty for quite some time, but their demands had been largely ignored until staff were willing to withhold their labor.
The staff at CSU had been demanding a living wage for many of their workers. “There were several issues in our contract: salary, especially for lecturers, is way too low and hasn’t kept up with inflation; workload is outrageous for a lot of us; counselors aren’t supported; public safety and interactions with police; maternity/paternity leave needs to be increased; and a few others.” Says Chris Fosen, PhD. He is a professor of Rhetoric and Writing in the English department at Chico State since 2001, as well as the father of Inspire sophomore Adele Fosen.
“Lots of faculty were out there, energy was high, there was food and conversations and chants and marches and music; and generally there was a lot of ‘fellow feeling.’ Most of the cars seemed to be honking in support!” He says in an interview.
After just one day of striking, a tentative agreement had been reached between the CFA and CSU. The agreement offered a 15% raise over the course of 3 years, the first increment being a 5% increase in salary retroactive to July 1, 2023. It also offered benefits, such as an increase in paid parental leave from six to ten weeks, an increase in protection for faculty who interact with police by providing a union representative, improving access to gender inclusive restrooms and facilities, and a raise in base salary for the lowest paid workers.
Faculty and staff were to return to work on January 23, 2024, with the agreements already settled. However, not all parties are satisfied with the tentative agreement.
According to the CSU press release on the topic, the demands of the CFA would cost a total of $380 million, claiming that it is financially unrealistic. Their request costs more than the increase in state budget that the CSU received last year ($227 million), and is more than the entire budget of Cal Poly Pomona ($369 million).
On the other hand, many faculty are also left unsatisfied. “The settlement is somewhat disappointing. We had all this energy going into the strike and had really geared up for it, but CFA leadership called it off after one day.” Says Chris Fosen. “In addition, when news trickled out about what we’d settled, we didn’t meet all our goals and some issues weren’t addressed at all.”
Despite not meeting perfection, the strike was still a success. Little progress is better than none, and the CFA and CSU were still able to come to an agreement, regardless of its state of compromise.
“[T]his is just one round of bargaining and another is due to begin next year. So if we can take our gains here and learn from our strike this time, we’ll be in a better position next time to get a few more wins for faculty and students in the CSU.”
Overall, the wins of the CFA as a result of the strike are progress towards living wages for staff at all California State University locations, and although the strike was not able to achieve everything it aimed to, it made wonderful progress towards living wages and benefits for faculty members.