{"id":183783,"date":"2026-02-19T01:13:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T01:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/183783\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T01:13:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T01:13:45","slug":"csu-fresno-trade-workers-continue-statewide-strike-amidst-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/183783\/","title":{"rendered":"CSU Fresno Trade Workers Continue Statewide Strike Amidst Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teamster Local 2010 Skilled Trades workers are amidst day two of a four-day unfair labor practice strike across all California State University campuses, demanding promised raises.<\/p>\n

At Fresno State, trade workers are picketing all day Wednesday through rain and shine at entrances throughout campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chose to come out this early and be here in a picket to support my coworkers, to support all the trades across all the campuses,\u201d said Arlan Hartmann, an automotive equipment and maintenance mechanic. \u201cI hope it brings more attention to what\u2019s going on\u2026 In a perfect world, (CSU) would just honor the contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

A five-year contract between CSU and Teamsters promised annual 5% salary increases, contingent on state funding.<\/p>\n

However, last summer, the state reduced funding by 3%, about $144 million. In its place, California provided a one-time loan of the same amount to be paid by July 1.<\/p>\n

The union believes that the loan leaves CSU fully funded and capable of providing raises. But CSU asserts the loan cannot be used for ongoing salary increases.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CSU values its employees and remains committed to fair, competitive pay and benefits for our skilled trades workforce through the collective bargaining process with the Teamsters,\u201d CSU said in a statement. \u201cIt is unfortunate that the Teamsters is\u00a0advancing false claims to justify a strike.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fresno State classes and student services will continue as normal and the university does not anticipate the strike will have an impact on academic operations, a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Trade Workers \u2018Keep the Campus Moving\u2019<\/p>\n

Trade workers are in a largely unseen role, keeping the campus \u201cmoving\u201d behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I do specifically is help the plumbers, electricians and carpenters. We keep their equipment going so that they can do their job. They can keep the lights on and the water warm for the for the dorms,\u201d said equipment mechanic Brent Gerken. \u201cWithout us, nothing really happens on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hartmann, who gets up at 3:30 a.m. every morning to arrive on campus by six, echoed this statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students would be affected if my job wasn\u2019t here or the jobs of my other coworkers weren\u2019t here,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we\u2019re not here to keep them up and going, the students will be out of power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their work spans across every department, deemed essential by CSU during the pandemic. But they remain underpaid, while cost of living increases, according to teamsters.<\/p>\n

University of California Skill Trades workers make 23.6% more on average than CSU employees, a union flyer stated.<\/p>\n

This work is appreciated by their coworkers, several of whom joined the picket during their breaks, according to Hartmann.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeamsters members are at the heart of keeping our campuses operational so that faculty and staff can serve our students,\u201d the California Faculty Association said in a statement. \u201cWe must do everything in our power to help them hold the picket line when they are on strike.\u201d<\/p>\n

CSU Hikes Student Tuition and Top Brass get Raises<\/p>\n

In Fall 2024, CSU began annually increasing student tuition by 6% \u2014 a total of 34% across five years.<\/p>\n

Fresno State had one of the biggest fee hikes, adjusting for inflation, as fees surged by 56% EdSource reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Additionally, CSU trustees approved raises up to 15%\u00a0for university presidents in November. Fresno State President Sa\u00fal Jim\u00e9nez-Sandoval received a 10% raise that increased his base pay to $523,617.<\/p>\n

\"\"Teamsters Local 2010 Skilled Trades workers on strike hold signs and hand out information flyers at entrance to Fresno State.<\/p>\n

Before the union\u2019s current contract, trade workers hadn\u2019t received annual raises for nearly 30 years. In 2023, members held multiple strikes to obtain salary increases.<\/p>\n

CSU\u2019s recent decisions felt like \u201ca stab in the back\u201d according to Gerken.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all struggling with inflation, and this would help immensely for a lot of us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teamster Local 2010 Skilled Trades workers are amidst day two of a four-day unfair labor practice strike across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-183783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}