California State University reaches agreement with faculty union after workers went on strike

SAN FRANCISCO - In a late development on Monday, California State University announced they reached a tentative agreement with the faculty union after workers went on strike that same day. 

Faculty members from The California Faculty Association walked the picket lines. CSU is the state's largest public university sytem. 

The faculty union, representing professors, librarians and coaches, is calling for a 12% pay increase, and better working conditions. 

In a news release from the university, students were advised to check for messages from their instructors about potential adjustments to their classes. 

CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia said she was pleased that the university and the union reached common ground and that the strike was immediately ended. "The agreement enables the CSU to fairly compensate its valued, world-class faculty while protecting the university system’s long-term financial sustainability," Garcia said in her statement. 

"We have been fighting for a long time to bring our pay up to a decent level," said Catherine Poewll, a librarian at Cal State San Francisco. "Our lowest paid people are making less than $60,000 a year. Right? You can't live in the Bay Area on that."

While classes haven't started at Cal State San Francisco, the impact of the strike was felt across the 23 Cal State University campuses, including those where instruction was supposed to start on Monday.

"Today we have shut down 23 campuses, including here at Cal State Long Beach," said Associate Professor Lily House-Peters from Cal State Long Beach. "That is almost 30,000 faculty who are on the picket lines and almost 400,000 students who are not on campus the first day of the spring semester."

Another 1,100 CSU plumbers, electricians and other skilled trades workers represented by the Teamsters Local 2010 were set to join the strike but reached an agreement with the university late Friday. 

Contract negotiations stalled two weeks ago when the university offered a 5% pay raise, and said the raise workers want would cost the system $380 million this year alone. Before the agreement, the university said "this is financially unrealistic. Their request far surpasses the state funding increase that the CSU received in last year's state budget ($227 million)."

Workers said the systems chancellor makes more than $795,000 per year, and that if belt tightening is needed it should come from leadership, not on the backs of educators. 

"I mean, if the chancellor argues that they should be paid that much because that's how you attract good talent, how is that not true for the people who actually teach and do the work in the school," said Powell. 

Because of the strike, many teachers canceled their classes, but the CSU system said the classes were not officially canceled. 

Some students on Monday joined the picket lines to show their support. 

The Cal State system said the university and union were in communication over the weekend, but did not discuss any details of that communication. The university did not have specific details of the tentative agreement. 

The CFA represents approximately 28,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors, and coaches. 

Associated Press contributed to this story.