Cal State faculty members get 5% raise

California State University officials are unilaterally raising faculty pay by 5%, rejecting demands for much higher increases and ending contract negotiations with the faculty union, a move that has ramped up labor strife as a systemwide, weeklong walkout approaches.

The pay hike effective Jan. 31 is far from the 12% increase for the 2023-24 academic year sought by the California Faculty Association, which represents professors, lecturers, counselors, librarians and coaches. University officials said Tuesday the union's salary demands were not financially viable and would have resulted in layoffs and other cuts.

“With this action, we will ensure that well-deserved raises get to our faculty members as soon as possible,” Leora Freedman, vice chancellor for human resources, said in a statement. “We have been in the bargaining process for eight months and the CFA has shown no movement, leaving us no other option.”

Charles Toombs, president of the California

Faculty Association, lambasted the university's decision to end contract talks.

“CSU management expressed nothing but disdain for faculty,” he said in a statement. “CSU management has never taken seriously our proposals for desperately needed equity transformation for CSU students, faculty, and staff.”

The divide over pay had reached an apex in recent weeks, with faculty staging one-day strikes at four campuses in early December to voice dissatisfaction with the university system's pay proposals. A weeklong strike is planned at all 23 of the system's campuses starting Jan. 22, which marks the beginning of the spring semester for most students.

The CSU and faculty union were engaged in socalled reopener bargaining, in which parts of the existing contract can be negotiated before it expires in June. Bargaining sessions were scheduled for this week, but university leaders imposed their final offer during a session Tuesday, according to the union.