January 9, 2024
Faculty Colleagues,
We hope you’ve had a chance to get some much needed rest and relaxation over the winter break. We are still basking in the glow of our powerful strike action on December 6, 2023, and feeling the support and solidarity of our colleagues, staff, students, and community allies. We stood up for ourselves and for one another!
While we will continue to celebrate all our hard work in the Fall, it’s now necessary to prepare for the escalating strike action at the beginning of the Spring 2024 semester. As we said in our final message of the Fall semester, the CFA Board of Directors unanimously voted to call for a system-wide strike in coalition with our Teamsters Local 2010 siblings, January 22–26, 2024.
Before going on strike, however, our Bargaining Team had agreed to four days of last-ditch effort bargaining with management this week. In a show of good faith, we offered flexibility on some of our key proposals at the bargaining table, but we remained steadfast on the need to raise the floor for the lowest paid faculty and for a salary increase that keeps pace with inflation. Unfortunately, management came to the table with the exact same proposals they had from November. On the second day of negotiations (Jan. 9), they walked out of bargaining offering only threats of “layoffs” and imposing their “last, best, and final” offer on us, which is a 5% GSI and a 15% annual increase in parking fees. Needless to say, their reactionary behavior will not stop us from striking. On the contrary, it makes the planned weeklong (at least) shutdown of the CSU system even more vital.
There are two important actions to take now:
Fill out the Strike Registration Form so we’ll know what days you’ll be joining the picket lines at Cal State LA. We hope that you’ll sign up for as many days as possible, but at least agree to join the picket lines for the days/times you would normally be teaching.
Sign up to attend our chapter Emergency Strike Organizing meeting on Wednesday, January 10, 2-4PM via Zoom: https://forms.office.com/r/nEtuNYrvnT
Our upcoming strike will build on the show of solidarity during the first week of December 2023 when thousands of faculty, students, staff, and community allies turned out to our picket lines and shut down the campuses here at Los Angeles, as well as at Pomona, San Francisco, and Sacramento. During our December rolling strike, hundreds of Cal State LA faculty stepped to the forefront on behalf of the whole CSU while faculty from neighboring campuses came out to support us.
In the aftermath, our CFA Bargaining Team met with CSU management only to discover that – despite our heartfelt efforts – they’ve refused to make any significant movement on our proposals. They seem reassured that we will eventually surrender to our dismal working conditions, paltry wages, inadequate parental leave, shortage of counseling faculty, lack of gender inclusive restrooms, and a host of other injustices that plague the CSU system.
Barring a last-minute tentative agreement (TA), we're striking January 22-26. Please don't cross the picket line. Teaching online constitutes crossing the picket line. Until we have a tentative agreement, don't publish your Canvas. If you make your Canvas active, don't post course materials to it. If you post any materials, post this statement for your students: "The California Faculty Association is the union of faculty, librarians, counselors, and coaches for all 23 CSU campuses. We are striking January 22-26: Classes are canceled; campuses are closed. If you wish to prevent a strike, call the CSU Chancellor at 562-951-4000 and tell her to settle a fair contract. Faculty working conditions are student learning conditions. If you wish to join your faculty on the picket line, sign up here. For more student strike info, see this CFA FAQ."
Below is a list of links to new and previous information from our December 6 strike, which remains valid for the longer, upcoming strike.
Email to Students About Potential Strike (for Spring 2024)
Strike FAQs: https://www.calfac.org/resources/strike-faq/
Strikes: What faculty can & can’t do: https://theacademicworker.substack.com/p/strikes-what-faculty-can-and-cant
Don’t forget to sign the Picket Line registration form (here) and attend the Emergency Strike Organizing Meeting (register here) on Wednesday, Jan. 10.
In Union,
Executive Board
California Faculty Association, Los Angeles