For years now, faculty members of California State Universities (CSUs) have been putting great effort into receiving an increase in their wages for the work they do. After a potential faculty strike from CSUs throughout the state, the California Faculty Association was at a 48 hour standstill, with the CSU management, determining whether or not a tentative agreement would be reached. This agreement was finally reached this month, with the faculty winning and receiving a raise they so rightfully deserve.
This agreement was a success due to the pressure put on the Chancellor to meet their original demand of a two percent General Salary Increase (GSI) from 2015-2016. According to calfac.org, with this new agreement, CSU faculty will in fact be receiving their five percent wage raise as of June 30. Not only this, but they will also be receiving two more wage raises: one on July 1, 2016 and the second on July 1, 2017.
These raises are beneficial, because faculty will now be receiving a 10.5 percent wage increase in the next 366 days as of June 30, and with this a contract that does not expire until June 30, 2018 instead of June 30, 2017, giving more of a sense of security to everyone who will be receiving the raises.
Another great outcome of the raises from the agreement is that anyone who is under the “maxima” of their pay range will also be seeing a 2.65 percent raise between 2017-2018. New hires will also be seeing this raise if they are hired at a minimum wage for their range he or she will also be receiving the 2.65 percent pay raise.
In general, this increase was beneficial to students as well as their school’s faculty. This is because the potential strikes across the state could have had a negative impact on general school life for the two 48 hour periods in which they would have went on. Also being that some CSUs are reaching the end of their semesters, there was a possibility of the interruption of student learning if the strikes had occurred without the wage increase, or if the California Faculty Association (CFA) had decided to strike regardless, for some odd reason, and intend on receiving more.
Thankfully, now that the agreement has been made, and wages will soon increase, CSU faculty members will feel more pleased with the effort of the work they put into their jobs, as well as their effort in fighting for what they believe in. Students among these campuses will feel at ease knowing that the conditions of their professors have been made better, meaning their educations have a better sense of security as well.