Libby Black usually spends her Tuesdays in the classroom, teaching painting and drawing at San Francisco State University.
But today, the associate professor was on a picket line — one of thousands of CSU professors, lecturers, and other faculty members demanding higher wages across the 23-campus system.
“We were already behind inflation,” said Black, speaking over the cheers of the rally around her. “We’re not asking for anything luxurious here.”
The one-day strike at SF State was the second of four planned at CSU campuses this week. It began with Cal Poly Pomona on Monday, continues at CSU Los Angeles on Wednesday, and ends at Sacramento State on Thursday. On Tuesday, that meant many SF State teachers had cancelled their classes, trading teaching for chanting on the northeast corner of campus.
“Seeing professors struggle to just do what they have to do — that’s hard, as a student,” said Manisha Singh, a 20-year-old student who joined the protest alongside faculty on Tuesday. Singh was supposed to be giving final presentations for two of her courses, but both had to be rescheduled. “There is always power in numbers, and it’s great to see this actually happening.”
Each of the one-day strikes revolves around higher pay. For months, the California Faculty Association has been demanding its members receive a 12% raise for this academic year, smaller class sizes, more manageable workloads and expanded benefits. The union — which represents 29,000 lecturers, librarians, counselors and other faculty at CSU — is asking for more counselors on CSU campuses to support students’ mental health, increased paid parental leave, accessible lactation and milk storage spaces for faculty, gender-inclusive restrooms on campuses, and increased safety provisions for faculty interacting with university police.
“We recognize the need to increase compensation and are committed to doing so, but our financial commitments must be fiscally sustainable,” said Leora Freedman, the vice chancellor for human resources at CSU.
The university system, which is the largest in the United States, has said the union’s demands are far beyond the bounds of what the institution can afford. In May, a working group found the university system was facing a funding gap of $1.5 billion, and only had enough money to pay for about 85% of iits costs.
Granting a 12% raise to the university’s faculty, CSU officials said, would result in $380 million of new spending each year. Instead, the university system had offered faculty a 15% increase over three years, one that would be broken down into 5% annual chunks. But that agreement, union leaders say, would limit the faculty members’ ability to negotiate until 2026-2027, and put them at-risk of losing such raises if state funding ran out.
“No matter what, we need a contract where raises are guaranteed,” said Jenny Lederer, an associate professor of linguistics at SF State. “Nobody is going to vote for 5% this year, and unknown percentages in years two and three.”
Last week, a fact-finding report published by a third-party negotiator recommended salary increases of 7% this year, with additional raises for some of the lowest-paid staff. The report conceded that figure would still leave staff with salaries below inflation.
“CSU can afford to be fair with workers,” said Jason Rabinowitz, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 2010, a union of trade workers who joined the strike alongside the faculty union. They have been engaged in their own negotiations with the university system for months. “CSU is sitting on cash and reserves of over $10 billion, and hands out extravagant salaries to executives while short-changing workers.”
The claim that CSU is “sitting on cash” has been refuted in the past. Earlier this fall, CSU communications manager Hazel Kelly said the university system has $733 million in reserves earmarked for “operating expenses for economic uncertainty,” a figure that equates to 33 days of operation across the 23 campuses.
“Drawing on reserves to fund recurring expenses such as salary increases can lead to structural deficits and is not a sustainable alternative to using state funding or student tuition to support our ongoing educational mission for students,” said Kelly.
CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia earns $795,000 a year in annual compensation according to recent reporting by EdSource. Faculty members in the lowest salary bracket earn around $55,000 a year, according to the union, while those in the highest fall between $93,500-$165,500 a year.
Daniel Acosta Elkan, a lecturer in Latino Studies at SFSU, said he has to work three jobs to create one full-time schedule. Depending on the semester, Elkan teaches a rotation of six or seven classes between SF State, City College of San Francisco, and Cañada College in Redwood City.
“Where is the money that we’re giving to the school, through tuition, going?” asked Kathryn Constantino, a 22-year-old political science major at SF State. “Why don’t they just put the money where it’s supposed to go: to the faculty and the professors?”
At the rally, lecturers, students and other faculty were hopeful that the strike could make a change. But if it doesn’t, union leaders said it won’t be the last time the picket lines come out at CSU campuses.
“We hope that after this preliminary four-day rolling strike across the system, management will come to the table with significant movement toward satisfying our demands,” said Brad Erickson, the president of CFA’s San Francisco chapter. “If they’re not ready, we’re prepared to organize more strikes in the coming spring semester and use this first week of strikes as a taste for what’s to come.”