Big news: Our Teamsters-sponsored legislation, Assembly Bill (AB) 1818 has made it through its first committee hearing in the State Legislature. The vote in support was unanimous—our representatives understand that CSU’s contract-breaking must end!
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.
Much like Unit 6 Skilled Trades workers, legislators did not appreciate CSU’s deceptive actions. This morning, the Assembly Public Employment and Retirement Committee voted to pass our bill onto the next committee, a critical first step in the process toward becoming law.
Secretary-Treasurer Jason Rabinowitz and Vice President Ernesto Torres traveled to Sacramento to speak in support of the bill.
“In 2025, CSU failed to honor and implement contractual raises with Teamsters Local 2010 and other unions, despite receiving full funding from the legislature,” said Teamsters Local 2010 Secretary Treasurer Jason Rabinowitz. “Their actions caused real hardship for families, and also resulted in the Teamsters being forced to wage an unprecedented week-long strike across the system, significantly disrupting services to the students and the state. AB 1818 would prevent these problems in the future by simply requiring CSU to do what every other public employer does: bargain in good faith with the unions and honor its agreements with workers.”
Teamsters Local 2010 Vice President Ernesto Torres said, “We make sure our students can learn in functioning, safe spaces. We do our part without excuses. We ask this body to support this bill. Our future and our students depend on it. It’s not fair for the CSU to take and manipulate educational funds … and cut the working class when [executive] salaries continue to grow year after year, regardless of any contingency in the state budget.”
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 Assembly 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!
