CFA Reaches Tentative Contract Agreement

In December the California Faculty Association (CFA), an AAUP-affiliated union representing faculty across the California State University system, reached a tentative agreement on a new contract after twenty months of negotiations. The agreement addresses long-standing systemic inequities in the CSU by improving job security for contingent faculty, recognizing the “cultural taxation” of faculty of color, increasing remote working opportunities for librarians and counselors, expanding the eligibility of coaches for multiyear contracts, and establishing working groups in other areas related to fair working conditions and compensation. It also acknowledges CFA members’ dedication to students through a COVID service award, across-the-board salary increases, and additional adjustments to address salary compression and inversion. These hard-fought gains follow a series of faculty actions on CSU campuses during the fall term and a November rally outside a meeting of the board of trustees.

For more information about CFA’s contract campaign and social justice organizing, see CFA president Charles Toombs’s article in this issue.

Note: After this issue went to press, CFA members began voting on the contract, and on February 3 CFA announced that the contract had been ratified by an overwhelming margin.