California State University faculty to get $3,500 COVID bonus, pay bump in tentative deal
California State University faculty stand to immediately gain a 4% raise and a $3,500 pandemic bonus under a proposed contract their union negotiated.
Their pay could increase by nearly 15% over the next two years under the deal, which calls for another 4% pay hike next summer contingent on the state budget as well as smaller increases for a large portion of the system’s 29,000 faculty members.
The complete cost estimate has not been released, but a 1% pay bump to faculty members is estimated to cost the CSU $22.5 million a year, according to the system.
The contract, which still needs to be approved by the Board of Trustees and faculty, caps off more than a year and a half of contract negotiations. The California Faculty Association, the union representing the educators, in November had declared an impasse in its negotiation and threatened to go on strike.
“The new contract acknowledges the hard work of our faculty to ensure continued student success through the unprecedented global pandemic, while also ensuring fair compensation in challenging economic situations throughout our communities across the state,” CSU Chancellor Joseph I. Castro said in a statement.
The contract, if ratified, will also give lecturers a pathway to tenure, the union said. Campuses will need to at least interview their qualified lecturers who apply for tenure-track jobs.
If lecturers are offered permanent employment elsewhere, departments can request campus presidents to give the adjuncts tenure so they can stay in their campus.
“This is something we’ve been wanting for a long time,” said Meghan O’Donnell, a lecturer at Cal State Monterey Bay and who represents adjuncts in the union. “Instead of losing a really critical contributor to the university,... they can keep them by giving them tenure.”
The contract will also establish several working groups, such as one looking at expanding the length of parental leave and another lengthening the appointment of lecturers beyond three years. Castro will also write a memo calling for the convening of a group that will look at “alternatives to police” on CSU campuses, the union said in its statement.
Finally, the contract will make the CSU among the first public institutions in the nation to ban caste discrimination, or discrimination based on one’s social status assigned at birth, a practice most often seen in South Asia but exists elsewhere as well. It follows universities such as UC Davis, which added caste to its anti-discrimination policy in September.
“This is an historic contract,” Kevin Wehr, the union’s vice president and bargaining team chair, said in a statement.
The agreement comes just weeks after University of California lecturers reached a deal with their system, boosting pay and family leave, among others. UC earlier this month also averted a potential strike from its student researchers by officially recognizing their union.
Tens of thousands of workers across California’s higher education had gone on or threatened to strike at some point this year, representing workers’ dissatisfaction but also the growing power of organized labor in the state’s universities.
This story was originally published December 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "California State University faculty to get $3,500 COVID bonus, pay bump in tentative deal."
