CSU again demonstrated its lack of respect for essential workers and disregard for its obligation to bargain productively and in good faith during our Oct. 9 bargaining session.
Despite having three weeks to prepare a response to our last comprehensive salary proposal, CSU failed to bring a salary proposal at all. When our Bargaining Team demanded to know why CSU could not manage to meet its bargaining obligations, all the CSU offered were vague excuses. They claimed it’s due to how far apart we are on other articles and named proposals that would have little to no economic impact on the CSU. We do not accept these excuses.
“CSU’s very small movement on salary and continued refusal to pay our raises from July 2025 show bad faith and disrespect for the skilled workers who keep the University running. Teamsters will continue to fight on every front to win the fair contract and raises we deserve!”
Jason Rabinowitz
Secretary-Treasurer, Teamsters Local 2010
To emphasize the absurdity of this excuse, CSU maintained its prior position on a dozen open articles during the session instead of responding meaningfully to our other proposals.
These CSU positions include their attempt to completely gut our protections against contracting out in Article 4 and remove protections against student work hours being increased in Unit 6 in the event of a layoff in Article 30.
CSU also continues to reject all of Teamsters’ proposed substantive changes in the following articles: Article 10 – Appointment, Article 16 – Vacation, Article 20 – Assignment/Reassignment, Article 22 – Hours of Work, and Article 23 – Overtime. We will not accept CSU using its own refusal to engage substantively with many of our proposals to excuse their refusal to bargain in good faith on salary.
Howard Hall, a Teamsters Steward and locksmith at San Jose State University, spoke during negotiations Oct. 9 at the invitation of our Teamsters Bargaining Team.
“The CSU brought very little to nothing to the table. Rather than just tell us they do not want to negotiate a fair contract they are dragging it out over minor and small issues,” Hall said of our latest bargaining session. “They refused to honor the last year of our last contract, and they did not come to this meeting with any type of a wage proposal. The Chancellor, the Board of Trustees that support her and the Bargaining Team are unjust, unfair and have no compassion for the Trades that keep their campuses open and running.”
CSU did provide responses on a few open articles but did little to make progress toward an agreement.
On Article 1 – Recognition, CSU agreed to our proposed change to reflect the reality that the Locksmith series is increasingly doing access control work but rejected our proposal to improve the salary grade for the series, which defeats the purpose of the change. For Article 8 – Concerted Activities, CSU walked back their outrageous and unserious proposal to restrict our rights to engage in unfair labor practice (ULP) strikes but proposed added requirements around sick leave and reporting to work when a strike is called, clearly intended to chill our members’ rights in the event of a strike. Finally, on Article 9 – Grievance Procedure and Appendix D-8 – Arbitrators/Mediators, CSU made movement on the arbitrator and mediator lists.
Our Bargaining Team responded to the CSU’s proposals on Article 9 and Appendix D-8 given that these were the only areas where the CSU made productive proposals. In all other areas, we maintained our prior position since our team is not going to bargain against itself.
In an attempt to continue making some progress despite the CSU’s obstinance, we reached tentative agreement for status quo/current contract language on the following article and appendices that neither side sought changes for:
- Article 19 – Leaves of Absence Without Pay
- Appendix D-1 – MOU Relating to Article 28
- Appendix D-2 – Clarification of Maintenance Mechanic Job Description
- Appendix D-3 – Implementation for Qualified High Voltage Electricians
- Appendix D-5 – Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee & Troops to Trade Program
- Appendix D-9 – MOU on State Funding
- Appendix D-10 – MOU Regarding New Employee Orientations
- Appendix D-11 – MOU on Cumulative Length of Service
We also reached agreement to remove Appendix D-6 – Discussion of Future Implementation of Steps, since our last contract implemented a salary step structure. Removing this appendix does not impact our continued efforts to restore the July 2025 raises that CSU illegally and unilaterally withheld.
In Solidarity,
Our Teamsters CSU Bargaining Team
Chief Negotiator Jason Rabinowitz, Local 2010 Secretary-Treasurer
Ernesto Torres, CSU San Bernardino, Local 2010 Vice President and Skilled Trades Director
Christopher Rooney, CSU Northridge
Carlos Sanchez, CSU San Diego
Deborah Elia, CSU San Francisco
Jared Pecot, CSU San Luis Obispo
Steve Phillips, CSU Fullerton
Alex Vermie, Local 2010 Research Analyst
