First things first: our Union is hosting a critical contract campaign update meeting this Wednesday, October 4 at 6:00 PM on Zoom. Please join us for an important discussion of the state of our contract campaign.
Teamsters Skilled Trades members are gearing up for a strike authorization vote as CSU continues to commit unfair practices and refuse to bargain in good faith for a fair contract. In contract negotiations on Sept. 26-27, the CSU cried poverty, refused to meet further for bargaining or pass additional proposals.
CSU told our Teamsters Unit 6 Bargaining Team they will again ask the state Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to declare impasse. Under California labor law, impasse occurs when the employer and the Union have exhausted the good-faith bargaining process and further negotiations would be futile. Upon certification of impasse, regular bargaining ceases and the parties move to mediation and then fact-finding.
Read our latest proposal here >>
Read the CSU’s latest proposal here >>
View the CSU proposed classification mapping & Salary Step Structure here >>
CSU’s last salary proposal improved slightly over the last one, but is still inadequate. CSU did not improve the previously proposed 5% GSI for the first year. In year two under the CSU’s proposal, workers would be placed on their step structure at a maximum of two steps above the step closest to their current pay level. Raises in years 2 and 3 would still be subject to unnecessary state budget contingency language. Under this proposal, many workers would not reach their appropriate step based on years of service even by the end of the three-year contract.
"Workers are fed up with CSU’s unfair practices and mistreatment of workers. They cry poverty and refusing to treat us fairly, while they jack up student tuition and give huge raises to executives. We know that the University can afford to be fair with workers, and Teamsters, along with our sister Unions representing 60,000 CSU workers, are fired up and ready to do whatever it takes to win the fair contracts we deserve!”
Worse, CSU continued to insist on taking away emergency pay and in-range progressions (IRP). The CSU wants to have complete control over which workers would get an IRP, with no recourse to the grievance procedure. They want to reduce our premium for emergency pay to $6 per hour, instead of double time, and take complete control over whether and when emergency pay would be granted.
After CSU gave us their latest inadequate salary proposal, our Bargaining Team passed our new proposal, making changes in order to keep negotiations moving: We kept our salary steps the same but agreed to the CSU’s proposal for a three-year contract when we previously asked for the CSU to commit to a five-year agreement. While sticking to our proposed 7% general salary increase (GSI) for the first year, we lowered our general salary increase for the second year of the contract, from 6% to 5%, and kept year three at 5%. We also continued to propose step placement in the first year and a step increase in the second and third years.
In October, strike authorization votes will be held at each of the 22 campuses where Teamsters represent Skilled Trades workers. Stay tuned to your email and our website at www.teamsters2010.org/fight for details.
Only full members will be able to vote. Non-members may sign up to be members at the Strike Authorization Vote locations.
“We are ready to strike,” said Ernesto Torres, Teamsters Bargaining Team member working at CSU San Bernardino. “CSU won’t even negotiate [non-salary] language with us.”
Bargaining Team members Matt Mason, a mechanic at Sacramento State, also had something to say: “Hey hey, beep beep … the CSU is mighty cheap.”