Members of the California Faculty Association overwhelmingly ratified a new contract with the California State University system, the union announced Thursday.
The agreement covers 29,000 instructional faculty, coaches, librarians and counselors across the 23 CSU campuses, including San Diego State, and runs through June 30, 2024.
According to the CFA, over two weeks, 95% of voting members supported the tentative agreement reached with CSU in December.
“After two hard-fought, member-driven years of bargaining, we have a new contract,” Charles Toombs, president of CFA and a professor of Africana Studies at SDSU, said in a statement. “This vote signifies that we can bargain for salary gains while at the same time moving our working conditions forward through an anti-racism and social justice lens. We are stronger together and our votes demonstrate that emphatically.”
The agreement calls for faculty to receive:
- a one-time payment of $3,500, prorated by each faculty member’s 2020-21 time base;
- a 4% general salary increase, retroactive to last July 1;
- up to a 4% salary increase, effective this coming July 1, dependent on the state budget allocation to the CSU;
- a 2.65% service salary increase during fiscal years 2021-22 and 2023-24 for all eligible faculty, including coaches, counselors and librarians, and
- a 2.65% post-promotion increase during fiscal year 2022-23 for eligible faculty, including coaches, counselors and librarians.
CFA officials said the contract also makes strides toward the union’s equity goals.
Sharon Elise, a CFA bargaining team member and professor of social justice at Cal State San Marcos, noted that the “transformation we strive for cannot be accomplished solely through bargaining,” but said the new contract aids in “firmly (supporting) faculty who face bias.”
The association, she said, has other goals, including working on alternatives to campus police and addressing needs for parental support.
– City News Service