Students and visitors come and go at the Fresno State Library.
JOHN WALKER
Fresno Bee file
Fresno State will return from a President’s Day holiday on Tuesday to an unfair labor practice strike by Teamsters Local 2010, which represents skilled trades workers across the California State University system including plumbers, electricians, mechanics and carpenters.
The university is not anticipating any disruption to classes or essential services, according to a university spokesperson. But union members, likely with support from members of the California Faculty Association and California State University Employees Union, will work picket lines at one of the main entrances to campus at Shaw and Maple avenues through a strike that is scheduled to run through Friday. In January, 94% of union membership voted to strike CSU campuses statewide.
“We’re going to be out there protesting CSUs unfair treatment of our members,” said Alex Vermie, a union analyst.
At dispute is an interpretation in the collectively bargained contract between the union and the CSU. The parties agreed that the salary increases were contingent on the state delivering funding through a five-year compact with the CSU, which included annual 5% increases. The state budget included a 3% reduction, about $144 million. It also included a one-time, $144 million, zero-interest loan that is to be paid back by July 1, 2026. The loan, according to the CSU, was offered to help bridge a temporary deferral of ongoing base funding until 2026–27.
The union believes the CSU is fully funded, with the loan. The CSU believes that because the loan must be repaid, it cannot be used to support ongoing salary increases. It authorized the use of the loan for one-time payments to employees, subject to the collective bargaining process.
“We are bargaining in good faith with Teamsters Local 2010 and remain committed to continuing negotiations in an effort to reach a mutually acceptable agreement,” a CSU spokesperson said. “While we hope a strike can be avoided, we respect employees’ rights under the law.
“Our campuses will remain open, and classes will continue as scheduled during any strike activity. At this time, the university does not anticipate disruptions to student services.”
Big raises for presidents rile union
The dispute has only been exacerbated by large pay raises approved by the CSU board of trustees for university presidents in November and for CSU vice chancellors in January.
The CSU increased the pay of 13 campus presidents by 5% to 20%, eliminated a policy that limited a president’s initial pay to no more than 10% of their predecessors and created performance bonuses and increased retirement benefits and housing stipends. The CSU insisted the market-based pay increases were necessary to recruit and retain top administrators.
Fresno State president Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval received a 10% raise that increased his base pay to $523,617, fifth highest among campus presidents in the CSU.
Cal Poly president Jeffrey Armstrong is the highest paid president in the CSU with a base salary of $611,203, and eight other presidents are paid more than $500,000.
“The core of the issue is we had this long fight with them, had some strikes over the past couple years, to get to a contract, a collective bargaining agreement that addressed these longstanding issues around competitiveness to other employers and getting salary steps and salary progression, because people were just stuck for almost 30 years,” Vermie said.
“And then, what does CSU do? There are some deferrals in the state budget this year so they reopen the contract and take away the last year of the raises, and that’s the core of the issue right here. Our members are doing an unfair labor practice strike against the CSUs actions, taking away already agreed upon raises that we had to fight hard for, and our members were out there fighting for the CSUs funding,” Vermie said.
When the state was originally coming with an 8% cut, our members were in Sacramento lobbying for the funding, and then this is what CSU turns around and does.”
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