Tens of thousands of Cal State University faculty members including professors at Cal State Fullerton are walking out on strike this week demanding better pay amid contract negotiations just as students at over 15 campuses are starting the spring semester.
The California Faculty Association, a union representing 29,000 professors, librarians, counselors and coaches at the largest university system in the country, is hitting the picket line from Jan. 22-26 to try and get their employers back to the bargaining table.
On Monday, light showers drenched over 200 people marching in red ponchos around Cal State Fullerton campus, with some gathering as early as 5 a.m. in solidarity with the union.
A majority of those in support crowded the corner of Folino Drive and Nutwood Avenue chanting “CSU greed has got to go!”
“We want to continue to work. We don’t want to be out here striking – the CSU needs to show [lecturers] that they care about us,” said Laura Elsberry, a part-time biology lecturer at CSUF, at the strike.
“It’s important to be out here and show solidarity with all of our counselors, librarians, part and full-time faculty, and coaches because we’re united in this and all want a fair contract.”
Strikers are calling for a 12% raise for its members this year as well as demanding limits on armed policing, the creation of nursing spaces on campuses, gender inclusive bathrooms, increased paid family leave, and increased mental health staffing for students.
The demands come as university presidents have seen their salaries grow nearly twice the rate of lecturers over the past decade and as tuition has increased.
It also comes after the university system faced backlash last year for simultaneously approving a 6% student tuition hike up until the 2028-29 academic year and raising executive compensation.
Cal State administrators pushed back on faculty’s demands calling their requests financially unfeasible and arguing they could lead to program cuts and potential layoffs.
Cal State officials are instead offering a 15% pay increase over three years – 5% a year – as well as two additional weeks of paid parental leave.
“The CFA’s demand for a 12% raise would cost $312 million just this year. Their other economic demands, such as life insurance increases and raising the minimum pay add up to another $68 million, for a total of $380. This is financially unrealistic,” reads a Monday Cal State University news release.
“Their request far surpasses the state funding increase that the CSU received in last year’s state budget ($227 million) and is more than the entire budget of Cal Poly Pomona ($369 million).”
Dana Cloud, a Cal State Fullerton human communications lecturer, said in an interview Friday the union’s action to strike is also about raising the wage floor for part time lecturers – who teach most of the classes but don’t have a living wage.
“You have to add up four or five classes to even earn about $55,000 a year – that’s a very heavy load,” Cloud said, adding that lecturers live paycheck to paycheck. “Bringing home so little money for massive amounts of work is a real hardship.”
This week’s strike is taking place after the CSU reached a deal with Teamsters Local 2010, a union representing skilled workers at the state system on Friday last week.
It also comes after a summer of strikes last year that saw Southern California hotel workers walk out for better pay – along with actors, screenwriters and UPS drivers and other workers.
[Read: The Summer of Strikes]
A strike at California State University, Fullerton. 29,000 California State University staff began a systemwide strike on Jan. 22, 2024. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC 
J.R. Luker, California State University Professor, picketing at the corner of State College Blvd. and Nutwood Ave. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC. 
A sign at the California State University, Fullerton, faculty strike on Jan. 22, 2023. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC
Mildred Garcia, the new Chancellor for Cal State and a former Cal State Fullerton president, said in a Friday news conference that faculty members deserve a pay increase but the university system also has to think about its financial stability.
“I have no interest in a strike. We are ready and willing to come back to the bargaining table with the California Faculty Association but we must work within our financial realities,” she said.
Garcia is primed to make just under $1 million in her first year serving as chancellor.
Cloud questions the university system officials’ claims that the raises are not viable.
“The chancellor just got an $800,000 salary – 60% more than her predecessor, a bunch of CSU presidents got raises nearing 30%. All of this while someone at the very bottom can’t get a 12% raise,” she said.
“They have the money and their priorities are really off.”
Hugo Rios is a Voice of OC intern. Contact him at hugo.toni.rios@gmail.com or on Twitter @hugoriosss
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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