In the first week since the new school year began, workers at Sacramento State stepped away from their jobs to rally for better pay. The California State University Employees Union has been working without a contract since July 1.
About 40 members of CSUEU from Sacramento and nearby campuses lined the corridor of the union building’s third floor holding signs and wearing bright blue union t-shirts Wednesday morning as the bargaining team representing the CSU system arrived for a negotiation session.
“We’re trying to bargain for a fair contract. We deserve fair pay,” said April Dunham-Filson, an environmental health and safety specialist at Stanislaus State. “The CSU is not bargaining fairly. In the last bargaining session, they offered us only a 1% raise which doesn’t even cover the cost of living these days. If they don’t start to bargain in good faith, we are ready to strike. The workers are fed up. They don’t want to have to work two or three jobs to make a living.”
The CSUEU represents about 15,000 staff members, 20,000 student assistants and 1,000 workers employed by private sector auxiliaries on campuses, making it the largest labor group within the system. The CSUEU contract for healthcare, operations, clerical and technical support services staff expired on July 1. The student and private sector workers within the union are currently negotiating their first contracts.
A member of California State University Employees Union holds a sign during a group meeting following a bargaining session between the union and the California State University system at Sac State Student Union in Sacramento on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. ZIYU JULIAN ZHU julian.zhu@sacbee.com
For staff represented by the CSUEU, the major demands include salary raises, reducing dependence on temporary workers and ensuring job security. In addition, the workers are asking that step-based raises be fully funded. While the CSU has offered a 1% salary increase, the union is proposing a 9% raise each year for three years, members said.
After the CSUEU bargaining team presented the CSU negotiators with a total package proposal Wednesday, management adjourned the session for the day to give them time to respond. The next bargaining session is scheduled for Sept. 9 at the Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach.
Meanwhile, workers across CSU campuses have rallied at fall convocations over the last few weeks to draw attention to their struggle to make ends meet. This comes just as the CSU released a study that found that staff salaries were slightly below the market median for higher education institutions and about 10% below the general industry standard.
The CSUEU is not the only union currently bargaining with the CSU system. After more than a year of negotiations, the California Faculty Association — which represents about 29,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches — declared impasse in July. This means negotiations will now be mediated by a state-appointed third party. If there is still no agreement, the union could call for a strike, it said.
Vivian Mendoza, a California State University Employees Union member, speaks during a group meeting following a bargaining session between the union and the California State University system at Sac State Student Union in Sacramento on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. ZIYU JULIAN ZHU julian.zhu@sacbee.com
In a July 10 statement, union leaders said the CSU had, in its latest proposal, offered a “weak and flimsy” salary proposal that had left them not just disappointed but “insulted.” The union is asking for a full-time base salary that is at least 10% of the chancellor’s base salary of $795,000 and annual cost-of-living adjustments among other things. The CSU, meanwhile, said it believed “meaningful opportunities” for negotiations remained but the CFA had ended those by declaring impasse.
“Staff is the heartbeat in so many ways,” said Jessica Martinez, a lecturer at Sacramento State and CFA member, outside the CSUEU’s bargaining meeting Wednesday. “We can’t do our jobs as faculty without staff support. So we’re fully on board with whatever they’re fighting for.”
Teamsters Local 2010, which covers 1,100 skilled trades workers at the CSU system, is also negotiating a new contract. In response to what they called the CSU’s refusal to bargain future raises in good faith, the union has planned rallies across CSU campuses this semester. This week, the Teamsters are hosting a march at CSU Northridge during the president’s student welcome lunch. Next week, union members at San Jose State will rally on Sept. 10.
For the labor groups, a major argument in favor of larger salary increases being written into their contracts is that the CSU received a significantly bigger budget from the state in 2026-27 as compared with the previous year. This year, Gov. Gavin Newsom approved more than $500 million in new ongoing state support for the university system. This, along with $175 million from tuition increases and $25 million from a 1% enrollment growth, covers the CSU’s essential priority while enabling “enhanced investment” in its strategic plan, officials said.
Still, officials emphasized that the CSU would have to be fiscally disciplined given that the state will have a new governor in January and the uncertainty of the state’s budget outlook.
With more than $700 million in new operating funds in 2026-27, the CSU has allocated more than half of that — $377 million — to employee salaries and benefits. The rest will be spent on financial aid, academic programs, and technology and infrastructure, among other things, officials said.
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Tarini Mehta is The Sacramento Bee’s higher education reporter. Previously, she covered education in Napa County for The Press Democrat through the California Local News Fellowship. An alumna of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, she has written for publications such as the Boston Globe, the Bay Area News Group, The Diplomat, India Today, The Hindu and The Print.