Today is the last day to vote for the strike authorization
Voting closes at 5PM
Cast your vote today at: https://eballot.app/cfa - voting closes at 5PM today, 10/27.
It has been a busy week! Our Membership + Organizing Committee has been leading the Contract Action Team (CAT) work to Get Out the Vote (GOTV)! We hope you were able to stop by tabling this week to pick up your ‘Strike Ready’ t-shirt. Wear them on Wednesdays since Wednesdays are CFA / red shirt days.
Collectively, we have had hundreds of conversations with faculty this week - great conversations - over email, text, tabling or our via informational town hall held Wednesday. Before voting closes, we wanted to address them here:
The Commit Card is NOT a Strike Authorization Vote. The Commit Card was a pledge to fight for a strong contract and assess the level of action willing to be made by our membership and faculty. The Strike Authorization is a formal voting opportunity to authorize the CFA Board of Directors to call a strike.
Voting ‘Yes’ to authorize the strike does NOT mean we are going on strike. We are still in the factfinding phase of the statutory process and will not unlawfully engage in strike activity without doing so. For more information on Strike Authorization Voting and strike, please see the FAQs here: Strike Authorization FAQs - California Faculty Association.
What about our students? Students have expressed an overwhelming amount of support to staff and faculty during our contract fight. A strike threat does not hurt our students, it empowers our students. Modeling how to win equity, transparency, and resources is an effective way to learn. Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions and we all deserve better than what the administration is currently resourcing.
The CSU administration spends more money to resource the Chancellor’s Office than it does some campuses. With a track record of surplus funds and billions in reserves, CSU management tells us their story: management would rather invest in Wall Street than fund our classrooms.
We have learned through factfinding that management can fund our bargaining proposals and continue to stay in the black. Our proposals are specific to our students’ learning experiences: campus safety for campus community, adequate parental leave for uninterrupted instruction during semester, salary increases for our lowest paid faculty, a General Salary Increase that can keep up with inflation, and a reasonable workload that would provide a better learning and service experience for our students. Systemwide there is 1 CSU manager for every 100 CSU students and 1 mental health counselor for every 1813 students.
However, Cal State LA has the worst counselor in the state to student ratio at nearly 1:3000 students, despite former President Covino’s declaration that Cal State LA has funding for 16 mental counselors with no plans for full-time permanent tenure-track counselors.
This is why we fight: our students. Cast your vote today, nudge your colleagues. After you vote, join us for happy hour at Barbara’s at the Brewery at 4PM today (flyer below).
