Our fight to stop CSU’s contract violations continues! Last week, our Teamsters-sponsored bill AB 1818 passed the Senate Labor, Public Employment, and Retirement committee with a definitive 4-1 vote!
AB 1818 is our bill with Assemblymember Liz Ortega to change the section of state law that allows CSU to unilaterally re-open collective bargaining agreements due to state budget concerns. CSU took advantage of existing law to do just that with CSU Teamsters and deny us our July 2025 raises, despite receiving no-interest loans from the state legislature to meet their full funding requirements. The CSU also handed out huge raises to executives and sits on billions of dollars in reserves.
Our legislators have shown themselves to be unimpressed by the CSU’s behavior. AB 1818 has passed each of its four votes in the Legislature so far with overwhelming, even unanimous, majorities. After the bill’s most recent amendments—which would name the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) the final arbiter as to whether the CSU has received too little state funding to honor bargaining agreements—even the CSU has removed its opposition to the bill!
Left: Ernesto Torres and Jason Rabinowitz speak in support of AB 1818. Right: Jason, Ernesto, and Political Director Ali Tweini (right) with Assembly Liz Ortega, author of AB 1818.
Teamsters Local 2010 Secretary-Treasurer Jason Rabinowitz and Vice President Ernesto Torres were proud to travel to Sacramento to testify at the hearing in support of the bill. Local 2010 Political Director Ali Tweini attended in support, as well.
“Time and again, the CSU uses excuses not to pay our contractual raises” said Vice-President Ernesto Torres. “They find loopholes not to honor our contracts. They offer one-time payments instead of base-building raises. Yet 1,100 Skilled Trades workers at every Cal State university honor their commitment and serve over 470,000 students every year…We do our part without excuses.”
“Teamsters Local 2010 urges the Legislature to support our common sense bill to stop CSU from ripping off workers by using the budget as an excuse to unilaterally refuse to pay contractual raises that they can well afford and that they promised to pay,” said Secretary-Treasurer Jason Rabinowitz. “Our Union will continue to fight on every front until CSU starts treating its workers fairly and pays us the raises we earned and that we deserve!”
We were proud to have the support of our fellow CSU Unions, California Faculty Association and CSU Employees Union, during the hearing.
AB 1818 now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee for another vote. We’ll keep CSU Teamsters updated every step of the way as we continue the fight for a fair CSU!
