The week before Christmas brought another hard-fought deal to prevent a strike hitting California’s public universities.
California State University and its faculty association have tentatively agreed on a new contract, thwarting a possible work stoppage after 20 months of negotiations. The deal includes a general 4% raise retroactive to July 1, 2021, another 4% bump on July 1, 2022, plus a $3,500 COVID bonus in recognition of the colossal upheaval to instruction as classes moved online in the 2020-21 school year.
The raises and bonus match what was being sought by the California Faculty Association, which represents 29,000 professors, lecturers, counselors and others, including some athletic coaches. The CSU administration had previously offered only 2%, and the two sides had been so far apart that they went to a more severe stage of state mediation, Mikhail says.
Things were looking so dire that union leaders were telling members to start warning students of a possible walkout and class cancellations in the spring term at CSU, the nation’s largest public university system with nearly 500,000 students. CFA leaders credited the deal to activism by faculty, including petitions presented to campus presidents in early November and a Nov. 9 rally at the CSU trustees meeting.
Charles Toombs, CFA president, said: “Our new contract was made possible because faculty members were united in demanding our rights, respect, and justice.”
The agreement is subject to a ratification vote by CFA members and approval from the CSU board of trustees.
It follows a series of other labor agreements:
- On Dec. 8, the University of California recognized a union of 17,000 student researchers and staved off a labor disruption that would have significantly imperiled $5 billion in research funding.
- On Nov. 17, the UC system struck a last-ditch deal with its lecturers union, ending a years-long impasse that could have cancelled classes for one-third of undergraduates.
The settlements show that the ivory tower isn’t immune from the increase in worker activism during the COVID-19 pandemic — think “Striketober” and the “Great Resignation” — and the historic power of organized labor in California.
wait, wut…
I thought education was gonna be free?
What about the Students?
Govt Backed Loans have been a Major Success for Higher Education Bureaucracies
and a Major Failure for Students.
Higher Education Administration Bloat and Tuition Inflation (due to Govt backed loans) .
——————————–
The Govt/Feds should NOT be in the Loan Business at all…
That was the start of tuition inflation, administration bloat and the unions were not blameless in taking advantage of students…
The University or College should be required to “Take the Risk” & provide Financial Aid or Loans..
That would ensure Students are “Educated” properly on how to pay it back.
Take California State University system as a prime example.
———— U.S. Colleges: Where Does The Money Go? (Forbes Feb2017) —————
A study found the
“CSU system had 11,614 full-time faculty in 1973, and 12,019 in 2008. (a 3.5% increase)
During that same time period, ADMINISTRATORS Grew
from 3,800 to 12,183 (a 221% increase),
ending up with More Administrators than Faculty.
It has only gotten worse since 2008.”
……..
“At some point, the trustees of colleges might want to step in and clean things up.
Probably, this will not happen until the Student-Loan Money STOPS Flowing..
When that time comes, they might discover that they actually have a nice little college, underneath that Stinking Pile of Administrative Waste & Corruption.”
————–U.S. Colleges: Where Does The Money Go? (Forbes Feb2017) ————
I think if I had collage age kid’s I would be sending them the University of Bangalore School of Engineering rather than wasting money in the UC-CRT, Communist Retro Training.
OF COURSE Cal State and the union reached a deal! Why wouldn’t they?
The school is ‘negotiating’ with taxpayers money, not with it’s own money. Whatever it hands over to union members has been extracted by force from productive workers, and now it’s being given to unions with a wink and a nod as if there was any real negotiating in this Kabuki play.
They have a cozy racket going, don’t they?
(By “racket,” I mean as a scheme to defraud the taxpaying public.)
And: “…a $3,500 COVID bonus in recognition of the colossal upheaval to instruction as classes moved online in the 2020-21 school year.”
Question: How many private employers — including employers negotiating with a labor union — have handed out a $3,500 bonus for the ‘severe upheaval’ that the gov’t created in response to this flu-like virus?
Another question: Does the current, or any former University/union contract have language regarding what happens if/when classes are moved online?
Why, exactly, is moving classes online a “collossal upheaval”? It looks like these teachers are being given an exemption from having to commute to class. Now they can lay about their houses and broadcast their classes. Where is the “collossal upheaval”?
Given the choice, which would they prefer? To have to go to work? Or to pretend to work from home? How is that a “collossal upheaval”?
More to the point, given the choice of going to work, or ‘working’ from home… which choice would the readers here think they would choose?
Beuller? Anyone…?
Inflation for last year was 1.6%. Faculty are getting a 0% raise, just the pathetic one-time payment.
Inflation for this year has been 7%. Faculty are getting a 4% raise.
You do the math.