S.F. State faculty strike to demand raises
A large crowd of faculty members at San Francisco State University joined picket lines on Tuesday morning in a strike over salary demands as some classes were canceled and dozens of students demonstrated alongside in support.
Picketers dressed in union red — and one in an alligator onesie, in honor of the school’s mascot — marched with signs in hand at the entrance to the campus at 19th and Holloway avenues. They rattled noisemakers and blew vuvuzelas at the passing cars, many of whom honked their horns to show support.
“Faculty working conditions are student working conditions,” read a sign carried by one student. Another demanded “Stop the cuts,” and included an image of the gator clutching a pair of scissors.
The one-day San Francisco strike was the second of four planned throughout the week across the state by members of the California Faculty Association union, who say their pay has not kept up with inflation, among other demands.
Protracted contract negotiations have broken down between the CFA and the California State University, which oversees the 23-campus statewide system that also includes San Jose State, Cal State East Bay and Sonoma State.
CFA chapter president and S.F. State Liberal Studies Department lecturer Brad Erikson said he and his fellow educators had lost 18% of their buying power relative to inflation, and that CSU’s unwillingness to meet their demand for pay raises was a “dealbreaker.”
Faculty picketed at Cal Poly Pomona on Monday and planned similar actions at Cal State L.A. and Sacramento State on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
The CSU system and the union are still far apart on contractually guaranteed raises to be enshrined in a three-year contract that would replace the one expiring in June.
The CFA — which represents about 29,000 lecturers, professors, counselors, coaches and librarians — wants a 12% raise retroactive to the summer. The university system has said it doesn’t have the money, while the union has pointed to pay increases they said top administrators have gotten in recent years as proof that it does.
In September, trustees of the CSU system raised tuition by 34% over five years, starting with a 6% increase next fall. That was the first rise since 2017 and is forecast to give the system $840 million in additional revenue between now and the 2028-2029 school year.
An independent fact finder’s report released Friday before the rolling strikes began recommended an annual 7% raise along with other benefits, saying a 12% increase would be difficult for the CSU system to absorb.
Violet Street, an S.F. State junior majoring in public health and volunteering as a student strike captain, was also on the picket line sporting CFA union red. “A pay increase is definitely necessary and fully supported by everybody,” she said, speaking of the mood among her fellow students on campus.
The university system said last week that it would accept the fact finder’s recommendations in areas including increasing parental leave (increasing from six weeks to eight weeks), life insurance, lactation rooms and gender-neutral bathrooms, personal crisis leave and parking, among other issues.
Erickson said that the increase in parental leave to eight weeks still wasn’t enough and that the union wouldn’t accept less than a semester off.
Other union members and student supporters said they doubted whether CSU would follow through on its pledges regarding lactation stations and genderneutral bathrooms in every building.
Meanwhile, some students faced a difficult choice between attending their classes and supporting the strikers. Two students who declined to give their names — one a history major, the other a communications major — shared a screenshot of a message from a professor saying that their final in American Sign Language would take place Tuesday regardless of the strike.
“I am aware of the strike,” the message from the teacher read. “I care about your education, I care about my job. I am going to work tomorrow,” adding that the exam was worth 30% of students’ final grade and no makeups would be allowed.
The union has previously undertaken one-day strikes but never called a full-scale strike across all campuses. It threatened to do so in 2016 and also in 2012.
Also at the protest walking the picket line in a sympathy strike were members of the Teamsters Local 2010, which represents 1,100 skilled trades workers across the CSU system, from plumbers to heating and cooling maintenance workers and others.
Their union has been in salary negotiations of its own with the CSU system since January, said Drew Scott, a member of the bargaining committee who was at the S.F. State strike and works at Fresno State.
“Everyone has taken a hit the last few years with inflation. It’s been huge,” Scott said. He said his members are at an impasse in bargaining and are entering the fact-finding process over pay issues and when the university can use contractors instead of union labor, among other topics.
Labor actions like the one at SFSU “are the only way we’re going to save these jobs going forward,” Scott said.