Feeling the pressure from our historic ULP strike, Chancellor Mildred Garcia has publicly committed to the State Legislature that so long as the current state budget holds, CSU will implement its long-delayed promised raises for Unit 6 Skilled Trades workers!
Questioned by legislators at the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance meeting on Feb. 17, the first day of our strike, Garcia said:
…And with the governor’s [budget] proposal as it is now, we can go back to the table to do the compact in complete form.
The “compact” Garcia refers to is Governor Newsom’s 2022 agreement with the UC and CSU to continuously increase state funding for the UC and CSU over a five-year period in return for tangible improvements in student outcomes—and without arbitrary denial of workers’ promised raises. Our Union fought hard to win the compact for CSU and to ensure the compact has been funded in every following year. The CSU, as we all know, didn’t keep up its end of the bargain. They refused to implement our July 2025 contractual raises despite having the money to do so.
Garcia’s public comments show that our successful strike, and pressure from dozens of legislators, exposed CSU’s greed and forced CSU to answer for its mistreatment of workers. Our Union won this commitment from the Chancellor with our action, but we know from experience that we need to continue to fight to hold the CSU to its promises.
With the strength that we have built through our successful strike, our Bargaining Team returns to negotiations with CSU March 23-24. We’ll fight to hold CSU accountable to fulfilling the Chancellor’s promises.
When Teamsters fight, Teamsters win.
