Teamsters Shut Down CSU Board of Trustees Meeting

Teamsters Local 2010 members, joined by fellow CSU union members and labor allies, picketed outside the California State University Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach Tuesday as the CSU Board of Trustees met inside, making sure Chancellor Mildred Garcia and the rest of the Board of Trustees heard us loud and clear.

Throughout the Board’s public comment session, workers outside chanted “No Fair Contract? No Peace!” as we picketed the Trustees meeting, demanding that the university pay raises promised to 1,100 skilled-trades workers in July 2025 and bargain in good faith toward a fair successor contract.

Inside the Board of Trustees meeting, dozens of Teamsters filled chairs and many addressed Chancellor Mildred Garcia and the Board directly. 

“I am proud of the work that I do, but let me be clear: we should not have to work this hard to afford to live,” said Marian Barrett, a plumber for CSU East Bay for 25 years. “The one constant throughout my 25 years has been the fight for livable wages. We are not asking for luxury. We are asking for a livable wage and respect for the work we do.”

After Secretary-Treasurer Jason Rabinowitz addressed the Trustees, Teamsters held up paper signs reading “NO FAIR CONTRACT,”  “NO PEACE!” shut down the meeting by chanting that and “What do we want? CONTRACT! When do we want it? NOW!” until two thirds of the Trustees left the room. 

Unit 6 Sept. 17 Bargaining Update

CSU made its latest proposals for Article 24 – Salary, and Article 25 – Benefits, during our most recent bargaining session Sept. 17. While CSU increased their salary structure adjustment (SSA) for 2027/28 to 2% from 1%, they took a massive step backward by proposing to hike our members’ healthcare premiums. Prior CSU proposals included benefits reopeners and an attempted takeaway of our healthcare subsidies, but their latest proposal directly proposes increasing our premiums by $5 a month for single coverage, $10 a month for single and one dependent coverage, and $20 a month for single and two or more dependents coverage starting Jan. 1, 2029. These increases would be on top of any future premium hikes handed down by health insurers as well.

Our bargaining team completely rejected this outrageous proposal. While CSU did increase their salary offer by 1% in the second year, it is still far from sufficient. Proposing yet another takeaway while they lowball us on salary and have not even put a raise on the table for 2029/30 is another disgraceful move. The CSU’s bargaining team also continued to refuse to provide our contractual July 2025 raises and held fast to their proposal for a 3% lump sum instead of the base-building increases included in our Union contract.

CSU’s Lowball Salary Proposal

2025/26

• Refuse to pay July 2025 contractual raises
• Continue to insist on one-time, non-basebuilding 3% lump sum

Current Year (2026/27):

• Total average 4% wage increase, including:
• 0.8% SSA
• All remaining Unit 6 to Target Step (1.3% overall cost)
• One 2% Step Progression, dependent on performance evaluation (1.9% overall cost since those at top of range wouldn’t receive step)
• Increases effective following ratification, meaning the longer it takes to reach a fair deal, the more money we lose.

2027/28:

• Total ~3.8% average wage increase, including:
• 2% SSA (up from 1%)
• One 2% Step Progression, dependent on performance evaluation (1.8% overall since those at top of range wouldn’t receive step)
• Effective July 2027
• Not contingent on budget

2028/29:

• Reopener, no guaranteed raises

CSU also responded to our substantive proposals on several other articles by holding to their prior proposals instead of making movement or rejecting all of our proposed changes, which they did on Article 23 – Overtime. Our Unit 6 bargaining team passed counters to the CSU’s salary and benefits proposals and responded to CSU’s lack of movement on these other articles.

We matched CSU’s movement on the salary article, which still leaves us far apart, and emphasized that we expect CSU to move off of tying step increases to performance evaluations and have the raises this year (2026/27) be effective July 1, 2026 if the CSU is at all serious about reaching a final agreement. Our salary proposal also continued to reject CSU’s proposal to eliminate emergency pay and maintained our proposals to fully implement the July 2025 raises retroactively, adapt the in-range progression (IRP) language for the step structure system, increase various stipends/allowances/awards, and improve a number of salary grade assignments.

On benefits, we rejected CSU’s attacks on our healthcare benefits and subsidies and continued to propose adding life and accidental death/dismemberment insurance and rural health/dental stipends.

We passed new proposals on Article 7 – Union Rights, and Article 9 – Grievance Procedure, that focused on improving the employee lists the CSU provides, increasing hours available for steward trainings, and eliminating separate arbitrability hearings that unnecessarily cost our union time and money. Speaking of arbitration, we also made our second proposal on updating the list of arbitrators and mediators in Appendix D-8. On other articles where CSU made no movement, we re-stated our prior proposals.

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