Last Thursday and Friday, our Teamsters Unit 6 Bargaining Team met with CSU for bargaining and CSU presented our Union with an insulting and inadequate bare-bones proposal on steps.
The “proposal” was in the form of a single powerpoint slide with four incomplete sentences containing minimal information. It provided for a new step structure with 23 steps, each valued at two percent. The “proposal” was totally inadequate, as it lacked the contract language that the University proposes to place in the contract, and the basics of what the proposal is intended to accomplish.
Worse, when our team questioned University bargainers as to their intent, it became clear that their proposal is an insulting low-ball offer that does not create a real step system and would result in absurdly low raises for Teamster members.
Some of the lowlights of CSU’s proposal:
- It would create a phony step system, with no automatic advancement through the steps
- There would be no step increase this year, or in any future year
- Members would not be placed on the steps based on years of service, but instead would be placed on the nearest step to their current pay
- There would be no General Salary Increases
- Total raises would be between .01% and 2%, with an average of a 1% raise
“Teamsters members worked hard and sacrificed through the pandemic, forgoing raises and placing our health on the line, and now CSU wants to 'repay' us with insulting lowball offers. Our team and all CSU Teamsters will keep fighting until we win the fair contract we deserve!”
Our Chief Negotiator and our team made it clear that the University’s “proposal” was completely unacceptable and that the Union could not and would not respond to it. We demanded that the University provide a coherent written proposal to us by the second day of bargaining. CSU refused to do so, claiming—incredibly—that their team of experienced negotiators and attorneys was unable to write a proposal.
Our team laid it out explicitly for the CSU: the University’s failure to provide a coherent written proposal on steps, over a month after our Union made its steps proposal, six months after the Governor directed the University to bargain with the CSU unions to implement a step system, and years after our Union raised this issue, was a blatant violation of CSU’s obligation to bargain in good faith.
Our next bargaining sessions will be on March 14 and 15 and in the next few weeks, our Bargaining Team will be calling on all CSU Teamsters to be ready to take action together. Our work makes CSU work, and we are standing together to demand that CSU bargain in good faith for real step increases and fair raises!
