Cal State Faculty Vote on a Contract This Week

The California State University system and the union representing thousands of professors and lecturers reached a tentative agreement last month to raise wages, ending the largest strike by university faculty members in U.S. history a few hours after it had begun. A ratification vote is being conducted this week.

Some faculty members voiced their displeasure with the deal soon after it was reached, saying that the leaders of the union, the California Faculty Association, which represents 29,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches, could have secured better terms if they had not settled so quickly.

If it is ratified, the contract agreement would immediately increase salaries for all faculty members by 5 percent, retroactively to July 1, 2023, with another 5 percent raise scheduled for July 1, 2024, if the state does not cut funding for the university system. The salary floor for the lowest-paid faculty members would immediately rise by $3,000 a year, and paid parental leave would grow to 10 weeks from six.

A simple majority of votes is required to approve the contract. Voting began Monday and runs through Sunday; results are expected next week.

Union members from Bay Area campuses held a rally last month and formed an enormous “No” on the San Francisco State University campus to trumpet their disapproval.

“My belief is that we can get something better,” said Mark Allan Davis, a tenured professor of Africana studies at San Francisco State. He told me that he planned to vote against the contract.