While it would only be a one-day strike, faculty at SF State and three other California State University schools are planning to go on strike in early December as salary negotiations have stalled and potential job cuts loom.
Tucked between the Stonestown Galleria shopping mall and Lake Merced, San Francisco State University actually has the second-largest student body of any college in San Francisco, with nearly 30,000 students. It’s part of the California State University (CSU) system, which consists of 23 schools, also including schools like Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Los Angeles, and Sacramento State.
We mention these four schools in particular because not only are they the largest schools in the CSU system, but their faculty are all currently planning a one-day strike in early December, according to the Chronicle. Each school will strike on a different day, but each will be in the first week of December, on dates between December 4-7. SF State teachers are scheduled to strike December 5.
“At SF State we face devastating job cuts to hundreds of lecturer faculty, the loss of hundreds of classes — harming students’ path to graduation — and increased workloads for remaining faculty,” SF State chapter president of their union the California Faculty Association told the Chronicle. “Our faculty are furious, and they’re channeling their anger into organizing for the coming strike. Management has lost sight of our educational mission to serve students. This strike sends a message to get back on track: Faculty working conditions are student learning conditions.”
According to SF State’s student newspaper the Golden Gate Xpress, 95% of those union members voted to strike in an October 30 vote.
The union is primarily pushing for a 12% pay raise, but also has grievances around lack of paid parental leave, scarce mental health resources for students, plus issues like the lack of gender-neutral restrooms and accessible lactation spaces for faculty.
The CSU system says campuses would remain open during all of these scheduled strikes. The system’s chancellor’s office said in a statement to the Chronicle that it “remains committed to the negotiation process and is hopeful of reaching a tentative agreement with the California Faculty Association, as we have done with five of our other employee unions in recent weeks.”
Yeah, but about those other employee unions. The education publication Edsource reports that the school system’s trade workers with Teamsters Local 2010 are also planning a one-day strike next week, on Tuesday, November 14, and that one will be systemwide.
Related: SF Teacher Strike Averted, After All-Night Bargaining Session Produces Significant Pay Raise [SFist]
Image: Gail P. via Yelp
