Rudy Acuna <rudyacuna@azteca.

net>

Foxfire:

"During the strike, the CFA demanded a 12% general salary increase. Now the CFA is
facing backlash on its social media posts, which have drawn hundreds of negative
comments. Many people share the belief that the CFA caved too easily. In contrast,
the CFA board of directors says the deal is an immense success."

What was the outcome of the Cal State strike?

California State University's system-wide strike quickly ended with a tentative
agreement. Some faculty members are urging a no vote on what union leaders say is
an “excellent” deal.Jan 26, 2024.
Many people share the belief that the CFA caved too easily. In contrast, the CFA board
of directors says the deal is an immense success.

CFA faces backlash after tentative

contract agreement
Jacqueline Carrillo/The Collegian
CFA picketer holding a sign that says “people over profit.” The tentative agreement
reached is stirring up conflict among union members.
By David Victor, Jazmin Alvarado, and Cesar Maya
Jan 26, 2024

The California Faculty Association (CFA) strike, planned from Jan. 22 to Jan. 26, lasted
only a day after the California State University (CSU) came to a tentative agreement
(TA) with the union.

On social media posts and in interviews with The Collegian, a number of CFA members
appear to be unhappy with the agreement. Some are threatening to vote against
ratification. Students are expressing their displeasure as well. CFA members at San
Francisco State University opposing the agreement held a rally on Jan. 25 launching a
“Vote No” campaign in order to overthrow the agreement.

However, the CFA encourages members to wait for the full proposal to be released
before making up their minds. Officials say the deal is much stronger than it first
appears.

The CSU has offered faculty from its 23 campuses, including Fresno State, a 5% general
salary increase retroactive to July 1, 2023, and another 5% increase in July 1, 2024,
contingent on the state not reducing the base funding to the CSU.

The second increase is not a guarantee because it depends on whether the CSU’s
funding will be cut for the next academic year.

During the strike, the CFA demanded a 12% general salary increase. Now the CFA is
facing backlash on its social media posts, which have drawn hundreds of negative
comments. Many people share the belief that the CFA caved too easily.

In contrast, the CFA board of directors says the deal is an immense success.

“This historic agreement was won because of members’ solidarity, collective action,
bravery, and love for each other and our students,” said Antonio Gallo, Associate Vice
President of Lecturers, South in a faculty-wide email from the CFA board of directors.
“This is what People Power looks like. This deal immensely improves working
conditions for faculty and strengthens learning conditions for students.”

Concerns about inflation

Jacob Caraccilo, a general math major at Fresno State, thinks that the settlement
could be improved.

“I felt like the workers got a lot of what they wanted,” Caraccilo said. “But I feel like all
the demands that were made for students didn’t really come to fruition.”
Alison Mandaville, a Fresno State English professor, said faculty didn’t get salary
increases that meet inflation.

“College presidents got up to 27% pay increases, but they’re not willing to go away
from 5% for us,” Manaville said.

These demands for better wages came amid concerns from faculty that current wages
make it difficult to meet workers’ financial obligations.

“Our lowest paid faculty actually make less for their starting salary full-time than the
K-12 teachers in the area,” Mandaville said. “We can’t provide for our students if
we’re not being compensated or given the working conditions we need.”

Virtual opposing meeting

On Jan. 26 the Rank-and-File Committee of Academic Workers at San Diego State

University held an emergency virtual meeting calling for a “no” vote on the tentative
agreement. The meeting was advertised on the Fresno State campus.

During the meeting, writers from a socialist blog, World Socialist Web Site, as well as
faculty and students from CSU campuses expressed their anger with the agreement.

Members were skeptical of the CFA’s motives from the beginning. Announcing the
strike’s end date caused members to question their dedication.

“There were a lot of faculty who were concerned about the CFA’s motives primarily
because even before the strike started, they had announced the end date. They were
also very clear that they had no intention of the strike continuing beyond that end
date. So there was some question about how committed the CFA was to the strike,”
one attendee said.

The attendee also said it’s clear that CFA knows people are unhappy with the
agreement by the way they’re trying to convince people that it’s a good deal. CFA
members, however, are feeling betrayed.

“The word betrayal has been consistently used to the point that you can see a slight
moderation even in the CFA’s own messaging from sort of this ‘yay’ the strike worked,
first message, to now please give us a chance,” the attendee said.

Another speaker said that the CSU system needs to stop stealing from the students
and that the money being used to pay the salaries of the administrators should go to
the campuses, and any insecurities students and faculty face.

“We need to end that process and bring all that money back and reinvest it in our
university, including subsidized housing for graduate students, and subsidized housing
for new faculty,” they said.
The speaker also explained his frustration with administrators and that their salaries
should be used instead to finance free tuition for California residents.

“We need to end homelessness and hunger among our students and we need to move
towards free tuition for every California resident paid by the egregious salaries of all
those people we’re going to fire,” they said. “We need to go hard on these
administrative jackasses, these NBA losers, no more consultants, no more garbage. No
more of this crap they’re trying to sell us…these guys have to go, million dollar
Mildreds (referring to the CSU chancellor) have to go.”

Lecturer issues

The number of working hours for pay was a motive for many faculty members to go
on strike in addition to wages because some faculty don’t get paid for any working
hours they do before or after the semester.

“As a lecturer, we have contracts that start and end when the classes start and end,”
said Teresa Brooks, a biochemistry lecturer at Fresno State. “So we are not paid for
any of the preparation work that we do before the semester begins and we are not
paid for all the grading after finals come in. If you grade after the last day of the
semester, you’re not being paid for those hours.”

Things are no different for anyone who may need to go on maternity leave. Whether it
be six weeks or 10 weeks, that’s not enough for Brooks.

“Our family leave is ridiculous,” Brooks said. “Lecturers care about our students, we
care very deeply and we will not abandon them. So realistically, our family leave
needs to be a full semester so that we don’t have to struggle to make
accommodations when we add a member to our family.”

The CFA’s Facebook page received negative feedback, saying that the 5% pay increase
was already offered before Jan. 22 and that accepting it made the strike pointless.

“I am very disappointed,” said Gabriel Chavira, a professor of psychology at California

State University, Northridge. “As a CFA member for 19 years, I can’t believe you gave
in after one day. [A] 5% was already approved by the CSU without the need for a
strike. We will never see the 2024 5%.”

The CSU offered similar terms in late 2023, which included a 5% salary increase for the
current fiscal year as part of a 15% general salary increase over three years. The CFA
rejected this offer.

CFA’s response

CFA released a statement via a faculty-wide email in support of the agreement three
days after the strike ended.
“The TA (tentative agreement) is a win in our battle for a just CSU. We are building for
the future,” said Vang Vang, CFA Treasurer and Fresno State librarian in the email.
“We joined in solidarity for what we believe in, and we got the best deal that we could
in a limited re opener bargaining, including large raises to the salary floors for our
lowest-paid. If the TA is approved, we are bargaining again in one year and will
continue our ongoing fight for rights, respect, and justice for all our members.”

Union members dissatisfied

However, some faculty members disagree and think the union has let them down.

“I’m disappointed the CFA agreed to so little. What happened to hiring more
counselors? Why are we OK with the administrators not explaining the $8 billion
stashed away?” said Vera Margoniner, professor of physics and astronomy at
Sacramento State.

Some have even lost confidence in the CFA after the tentative agreement and
considered leaving the union.

“I’m not paying my union dues anymore unless there’s a change in leadership, the
union is a complete sellout. If we’re going to agree to this, why did they even initiate a
strike? They don’t care about us at all,” said Pablo Ben, a history professor at San
Diego State.

Fresno:

The aaunion leadership says that exceeds their salary request.

"That effectively is a 12.65% increase for a lot of faculty," said Andrew Jones, CFA
Fresno State Vice President.

But some members said they're unhappy that part of the pay increase hinges on state
funding.

"We've burned by contingencies in the past and we denied the contingency that was
in the offer in the past, so I'm not quite sure why we're accepting it right now," said
Boone.

Boone also took issue with the lack of mention of increased counseling staff for
students, which he believes should be a priority."I need to delve deeper into the
details, but on the surface level, I think the serious, serious concern of psychological
services for our students is not being addressed," said Boone.

Union leader Jones said the contract addresses that issue but does not lay out
requirements.
"We do have language that will be in the contract that kind of tells you what the ratio
of counselors to students should be, so that's a step in the right direction," said Jones.

The agreement also increases paid parental leave from 6 to 10 weeks, which both
Jones and Boone called a step in the right direction.

On the other side, CSU Chancellor Mildred García released a statement saying, "The
agreement enables the CSU to fairly compensate its valued, world-class faculty while
protecting the university system's long-term financial sustainability."

Jones said it will take a few weeks for the full tentative agreement to be released to
union members and then another several weeks for them to vote, so we won't see a
full outcome for up to two months.

He also noted this was not a full contract negotiation but rather a third-year
negotiation and extension of an existing contract, so if this contract falls short of
faculty expectations, they will be able to address those issues during full contract
negotiations next year.

For news updates, follow Kate Nemarich on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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ME. There are a lot of questions, my main ones are how did the contract treat those at
the bottom; the student workers, the adjunct professors; issues such as maternity
leaves etc; and last but not least the cost of education. Personally I would like more
transparency. The universities are profit making ventures, does it provide for an
accounting. For a fact I know that CSUN carries professors elected to public office on
the payroll. Pays them a stipend and they accrue retirement credits that can amount
to a large retirement compensation. Does this also apply to elected officials who are
"friends of the university, meaning individual campuses and the Chancellor's office.
The bureaucracy has mushroomed while costs such as tuition, food, lodging etc has
zoomed.
C:\Users\Rudy\Documents\Fax\Documents\Documents\My Library\Bisbee
Deportations.jpg

My thoughts are to bring back the United Professors of California. Too many
professors have become independent brokers concerned only about their trademark.