Gov’s Budget Proposal Includes 5% Increase in State Funding, Leaving CSU With No More Excuses.
Five Unit 6 Teamsters Local 2010 Bargaining Team members and Secretary-Treasurer Jason Rabinowitz spoke to the CSU Board of Trustees during public comment at their regular meeting on Tuesday, Jan 27, to call on CSU to honor its promise and avoid a statewide strike.
“In calling this strike, Teamsters members are speaking loud and clear: We are fed up with CSU’s greed, disrespect and unfair practices,” said Teamsters Local 2010 Secretary-Treasurer Jason Rabinowitz. “CSU is out of time and out of excuses. We demand that CSU stop ripping off workers and immediately pay our promised raises or face an unprecedented and disruptive statewide strike.”
Even as CSU continues to claim it can’t afford raises for workers, the Trustees recently pushed through pay hikes for campus presidents and other top executives, along with a proposal to scrap the policy limiting incoming presidents to no more than a 10% salary increase over their predecessors. The move comes after years of rapid salary growth for top management.
Carlos Sanchez, Unit 6 Bargaining Team member who has worked at San Diego State for 32 years, addressed the executive raises: “You guys took care of yourselves, what about us? At San Diego State, I’m losing coworkers to UCSD where they’re posting jobs [paying] 30% more. At what point are you guys going to see the workers you’re losing? I guess we’ll see at our strike in February.”
Our Bargaining Team recently announced that we will hold an unfair labor practice (ULP) strike statewide from Feb. 17 to Feb. 20, unless the CSU honors our contractual raises and salary steps. Our membership voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike in December.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed 2026–27 state budget makes clear that CSU has the resources to pay the raises it owes. The Governor’s proposal includes a 5% base funding increase for the CSU system, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars in new, ongoing state funding, along with additional funds to partially backfill a prior deferral. This total of $365.7 million in additional, ongoing funding provides more than enough funding for CSU to honor its contractual obligations to CSU Skilled Trades workers.
By CSU’s own estimates, paying the July 2025 raises would amount to just a fraction of this new funding — roughly 1% of the proposed increase. Between the proposed state funding increases, annual 6% tuition increases, and billions of dollars in reserves, CSU’s excuses are meritless.
Debbie Elia, a Bargaining Team member and 19-year employee at San Francisco State, said to the CSU Board of Trustees: “CSU is the most frustrating place to work. It seems like we are always negotiating and then re-negotiating our contract. It is despicable that you were able to find base-building funds for you and your presidents, but are clearly unwilling to show us the same respect. We continue to serve the CSU in the interest of students, faculty and staff success and richly deserve base-building salary increases.”
CSU must abide by their contract or risk a completely avoidable strike by 1,100 CSU Skilled Trades workers across the state.
Go to www.teamsters2010.org/FIGHT for updated strike line locations and times.
