By Felipe Montano |Staff Writer|
Classes are still in session as it was announced that the CFA had reached a tentative agreement with the CSU board on April 8.
The CFA bargaining team whom was sent to negotiate the agreement, succeeded in establishing a 10 percent salary increase over a three-year period for current CFA faculty in the CSU system.
This decision came as the CFA authorized a strike to take place April 13-19 on all 23 CSU campuses.
It was in October of last year when a vote of “Yes” by over 94 percent, was polled online through the CFA website authorizing a strike against the 2 percent raise that Chancellor White had initially proposed.
CSUSB faculty were prepared for a strike to take place and had been in the process of preparing students for such a strike to occur.
The weeklong strike would have halted classes, disrupting both the learning process for the students and the influx of revenue for all 23 campuses, as they would be inoperable without its faculty.
“The strike process is not easy… its not a tantrum, it is a hard decision. CSUSB has one of the lowest salaries in the CSU system and unless we cry, we don’t get the increase that we need,” stated Associate Professor Ece Algan.
The Chancellor had proposed several reasons as to why he had given push back to the salary increase, one being that the money that was being asked for had already been allocated for other divisions of the CSU.
One of the allocations was for IT renovations for buildings and equipment that are outdated.
Chancellor White had also proposed that he wants to upsurge the admittance of in-state students and restructure its system to allow for a four-year graduation period.
“I am glad that I won’t have to worry about this in the future. It is something that we will always have to worry about ‘money’, but when you teach it is not something to take lightly. You are empowering the next generation, and your pay should show it.,” said future educator CSUSB student Anissa Mata.
As part of the agreement the minimum salary will be increased for tenure track faculty, as they are usually the division of faculty with higher responsibilities.
The agreement with the CFA and CSU is tentative and the CFA faculty has to vote to ratify the proposal.
The members of CFA will vote online between April 22-29 and the results will be announced May 3.
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