Vote NO on the Tentative Agreement
A message from the CFA-LA Executive Board
Dear CFA colleagues,
We have seen our pay fall below inflation, class size and workload increase, and conditions for our students and colleagues worsen for far too long. The fact is, despite what the Board of Directors would have you believe, this Tentative Agreement (TA) doesn’t do enough to improve faculty pay or working conditions. For that reason we urge you to look at the facts and vote NO so we can go back to negotiations with a reinvigorated bargaining team for a better contract.
The TA provides modest increases to some Lecturers while giving a pay cut to everyone else.
Here’s why we are encouraging you to vote No!
The 5% retroactive GSI is actually a pay cut. The open bargaining members made it clear that our bottom line was 12% retroactive to 2023 just to get us above inflation. As the attached graph by a CSULA colleague shows, this 5% GSI still leaves us 3.3% below inflation for the combined last 5 years. This is a pay cut not a raise.
The 5% GSI for 2024 is not guaranteed. Instead, it is contingent on the state not cutting the CSU budget. With no budget increase planned for this year, the media is reporting the CSU is anticipating budget cuts. If that happens there will not be a 5% GSI this year.
The 2.65% SSI does not go to every faculty member. You must teach 24 units since you last received an SSI. Most lecturers who teach only less than 24 units in a year won’t see an SSI in 2024.
The increases in 2023 and 2024 to the lowest paid lecturers on the Salary Ranges A and B will benefit only a small percentage of faculty at the entry steps of the pay ranges. The higher your step the less you will receive and if you are $3000.00 above the bottom of the range you don’t benefit from raising the floor. It is also proportional to your entitlement. If you have less than a 1.0 entitlement you will receive a proportion of the increase. Some lecturers will find after many years of service they are now near the bottom of the new floor. Use this salary calculator to estimate the effect on your pay: https://www.csunstrike.org/index.php/2024/01/28/calculator/
There is NO raising of the floor for Lecturers on the Salary Ranges C and D.
The TA extends our contract one more year. This means we cannot begin bargaining the next contract in April as was previously planned. Article 12, which governs Lecturer appointments will remain the same for yet another year. This article allows volunteers and graduate students to be scheduled to teach courses over 3-year Lecturers and provides no seniority to Lecturers allowing departments to fire more expensive experienced lecturers in preference for cheaper less experienced lecturers.
There are no obligations for the CSU to increase the students-to-counselor ratio. In fact, they don’t even have to meet with CSU to report on their efforts until 2026.
There is no enforceable language to control or reduce skyrocketing workloads and class sizes.
The 10 weeks of paid family leave does not cover an entire semester.
There are no requirements of the CSU to create gender inclusive bathrooms or lactation spaces for nursing parents in every building.
There are no enforceable protections from being questioned by armed CSU police.
Vote No on the TA and Yes to Democratize the CFA!
The TA was approved undemocratically on the evening of Monday, January 22nd, after a few bargaining team members had met with CSU management in closed sessions on Sunday without a vote of all members attending open bargaining sessions since June 2023. While CFA members voted overwhelmingly to authorize the strike, no vote occurred to ask us if we wanted to end the strike after only one day. Other large, educational unions such as UTLA, UC-UAW, and CTU make sure that their striking members review and accept the basic terms of a TA before ending a strike; we should do the same.
We can do so much better. We deserve it after two previous contracts that also did not meet our needs. Voting No will not only send us back to bargaining but it will support the efforts underway to democratize CFA. For a deeper discussion of how Vote No campaigns have resulted in stronger contracts and unions, you should read “What Message Does a ‘Vote No’ Campaign Send?” published in Labor Notes.
Voting No shows not only your dissatisfaction with the TA but also your support for democratizing CFA so we can have a fighting union that serves the needs of ALL its members!
Ask 10 colleagues to vote NO.
Join us at: https://voteitdown.org/
