Teamsters Local 2010 filed a second unfair labor practice (ULP) charge with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) on Tuesday, May 9, alleging CSU is violating its obligation to bargain in good faith by refusing to negotiate wages for any year beyond the current year.
The ULP charge claims that CSU put forward a three-year contract, with only wage reopeners in years two and three of the contract. CSU has refused to bargain for or discuss wages for 2024 and 2025, insisting only on wage reopeners. CSU also falsely claimed that wage reopeners in contract years after the first is “tradition.” However, numerous Union contracts at CSU have contained general salary increases in years after the first.
“CSU needs to stop playing games and finally get serious at the bargaining table. Not only are they showing they don’t take negotiations seriously, they are showing disrespect to the very workers who keep their campuses running, and sacrificed their health and safety during the pandemic to do so,” said Secretary-Treasurer Jason Rabinowitz. “CSU’s latest refusal to negotiate wages beyond the current year is absolutely absurd, and just brings us one step closer to the picket lines.”
Our Teamsters team filed our first ULP charge in March after CSU gave us an insulting “proposal” consisting of a single PowerPoint slide with four incomplete sentences and minimal information. CSU’s proposal offered no general salary increases, and the total raises offered were not enough to keep up with inflation – falling between .01 percent and 1.9 percent, with an average of a one percent raise.
Since filing the first ULP, CSU has continued to put forward salary proposals that make no real movement from their previous lowball proposals. CSU’s most recent proposal again only included a one percent average salary increase and no guaranteed step progression. CSU also proposed taking away all emergency pay and in-range progression (IRP) language. The only mechanism for additional step advancement would be a procedure entirely under CSU management discretion.
Thank you to all members who came out to our rallies at more than a dozen CSU campuses across the state for May Day and Skilled Trades Day, standing with our fellow CSU Unions to call for fair pay and a real salary steps system.
Please continue to share our petition calling on the CSU Board of Trustees to direct the CSU Chancellor’s Office to bargain fair raises and step increases.
We must keep up the pressure on CSU to end the decades long salary inversion and inequity. Let’s show the CSU that our campaign to fix their broken salary structure by finally restoring step increases is not over and we will do whatever it takes to restore fair wages, up to and including a strike!