Faculty members at California State University will head back to the classrooms on Tuesday after a tentative agreement was reached with CSU on Monday night.
The California Faculty Association, the union representing the faculty members, was supposed to be on strike for five days. Instead, they only struck for one.
“The collective action of so many lecturers, professors, counselors, librarians, and coaches over these last eight months forced CSU management to take our demands seriously,” CFA President Charles Toombs said in a press release. “This Tentative Agreement makes major gains for all faculty at the CSU.”
Initially, the union wanted a 12% increase while CSU said it would give them a 5% increase.
Instead, the two sides settled on a 5% percent general salary increase for all faculty members retroactive to July 1, 2023. There will also be a 5% general salary increase on July 1, 2024; but the union noted this was “contingent on the state not reducing base funding to the CSU.”
The agreement also includes raising the salary floor for the lowest-paid faculty, as well as the extension of the current contract for 2022-24 one year to June 30, 2025.
Day one of the strike coincided with the first day of classes for the spring semester. Cal State Long Beach Professor Dr. Elaine Villanueva Bernal told L.A.’s Morning News’ Vicky Moore and Mike Simpson that the administration pushed the deadline for class registrations and drops as a result.
The tentative agreement will have to be ratified by the union and California State University Board of Trustees.
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