The CSU Employees Union chapter at San Francisco State University rallied on Thursday in support of their bargaining team who began negotiations with the CSU administration for new contracts.
Just under 100 people gathered at Don Nasser Family Plaza in solidarity with the union for their first day of negotiations with the California State University at CSU Northridge. The union is demanding a pay raise, ensured job security, better working conditions and expanded benefits for their employees as well as a petition for language translations to improve contract accessibility. Their current contracts will expire in June.
Matt Itelson, organizing chair for the SFSU’s chapter of the CSU employee union, is one of the employees leading the rally. Itelson said that the union is seeking demands that will make conditions better for the state’s employees as California’s cost of living increases.
“People have been underpaid for decades on purpose, and we need to have the CSU administration recognize the funding that we’ve already received for the steps implementation,” Itelson said.
The CSU is transitioning CSUEU-represented employees to a new salary step structure. Pending final negotiations, employees will be placed either at the target step that corresponds to the employee’s cumulative length of service at their current campus or the placement step closest to an employee’s current base salary.
Itelson said that better pay and conditions for employees will have long term benefits for the campus.
“Better benefits, and better working conditions; In the end, all those things will benefit students,” Itelson said. “When we have staff members here who have been here a long time, who know the campus and the job, and are familiar with it, and are happy with their job, they’re going to do a better job serving students, and it’ll benefit student outcomes in the long run.”
Heaven Rodríguez, a student assistant for the residential life department, translated the details and importance of the employees’ contracts into Spanish. Rodríguez said the lack of translated contracts causes confusion for employees who don’t speak English during contract negotiations.
“At the last rally, there wasn’t much diversity in terms of language, and every speaker was speaking in English, and that was a little hard to navigate,” Rodríguez said. “When we were trying to get people to come out, to mobilize, and letting them know your contract is going to be up in June, it was hard because there were people who were like, ‘What is even in my contract?’”
Katie Murphy, the chief steward of the SFSU Employees Union, emphasized the importance of holding a rally while their bargaining team negotiates with CSU administration. Murphy said that the negotiations and rally are buying time to prepare for a strike.
“We are taking this time to get a strike ready, so that the CSU system knows there is a credible threat of a strike,” Murphy said. “If it happened, it would shut down the entire CSU system, and no buildings would be cleaned. There would be no one to unlock the doors. There would be no IT support for classrooms. There would be no one purchasing anything, and it would be pandemonium.”
Christine Hintermann, the leading speaker at the rally and interim president of SFSU’s chapter, reminded the employees and students of the importance of reforms to their workplaces and lives.
“The Union proposes to improve sick leave. I think we do deserve to have better sick leave,” Hintermann said. “Article 21 benefits proposes to improve parking by slowing the rate of cost growth, increasing the number of reserve spaces. We have one garage that’s just for our campus. Who knows what the other campuses are facing.”
Rodríguez grew up in a union family and sees the union as powerful and important for herself to show face in the rally.
“For me, more than anything, the goal is to dignify our workers with a livable wage in San Francisco, which is one of the most expensive areas in this country,” Rodríguez said. “Dignified wages, transparent communication between admin and our union, dignifying our workers on a day-to-day basis, making sure they know what their rights are as workers.”
