After the tentative agreement was released on Monday, California Faculty Association members held a “Vote NO” rally at Malcolm X Plaza at noon on Thursday to express their frustrations with it.
Around 250 teachers, students and supporters listened to their peers speak in Malcolm X Plaza before moving to the quad around 1 p.m. to spell the word “NO” with their bodies.
“It’s really nice to be a part of this,” said Badu Smith, a communications professor at San Francisco State University, who attended the “Vote NO” rally. “This is something that is bigger than myself.”
Many participants wore red shirts to support the launch of the “Vote NO” campaign. The rally opposed CFA leadership and the tentative agreement. Participants also chanted phrases like “education is a right; this is why we fight, fight, fight.”
“By demobilizing the strike early and without consultation, a handful of leaders demonstrated a lack of faith in our ability to organize,” Brad Erickson, CFA-SFSU chapter president, said to the crowd as a speaker on Thursday. “They say this is the best deal we could’ve gotten but we’ll never know because we didn’t have the opportunity to follow it through.”
Blanca Missé, an SFSU Modern Languages and Literatures professor, said she felt empowered to be at the demonstration after seeing the email from the CFA Board of Directors late Monday evening.
“Today what was so clear and gives me so much energy is that our faculty, our rank and file, are strike ready,” Missé said. “This is a fighting campus and we’re not done.”
Mark Davis, an SFSU Africana Studies professor, came up with the idea of creating a human demonstration of “NO” to showcase the union’s momentum.
“When it comes down to it, it’s about the human body and being together in space and time,” Davis said. “It just leaves an impact. People don’t forget stuff like this.”
Faculty members were joined by students like Kaeden Fleischer, a first-year SFSU student who came to support his professors.
“The very professors who keep the school running aren’t given the basic respect of even just a normal employee, a normal service worker,” Fleischer said. “They don’t get the basic respect to be able to have a say in what they want and what they get.”
Fleischer was one of many who formed the “NO” out on the field. While standing in the “NO,” members talked to each other and stood against the tentative agreement.
“Our faculty didn’t pick this job because they wanted to make money,” Fleischer said. “They picked this job because they found, in their schooling and in their professors, a passion for what they do and they want to share that passion.”
Ali Noorzad is the co-chair of Young Democratic Socialists of America at SFSU and a history major. Noorzad felt betrayed by the bargaining team and their acceptance of the deal.
“The bargaining team is basically just spitting in the face of it [previous striking] by agreeing to this. It feels a bit like a betrayal, but what’s really inspired me is I’m looking around and I’m seeing the rank and file are saying no, we’re not gonna accept this,” Noorzad said. “We’re going to take control of our union.”
Cesar Rodriguez is an associate professor of Race & Resistance Studies. Rodriguez was initially happy that an agreement was reached but felt differently after learning more about it.
“I found out the details of it, and I started to feel really dissatisfied. Dare I say, I even felt betrayed,” Rodriguez said. “It felt barely better than the last, worst contract that they imposed upon us, that management imposed upon us.”
James Martel is a political science professor and a CFA executive board member. Martel has continuously attended rallies on campus and participated in the Dec. 5 strike. Martel is against ratifying the tentative agreement.
“I was horrified. We were just all on fire with this amazing strike that we had organized. People were coming out of the woodwork doing magic things; it was just such a great feeling, so much power,” Martel said. “I just think the leadership got scared and they couldn’t handle our power. They made a really bad deal with the administration, and here we are.”
