(📸s from the Cal Faculty Association Twitter)
The 29,000 members of the Cal Faculty Association began their system-wide, week-long strike today after negotiations with the California State University system broke down again. LAist reports that the CFA is seeking a central demand of a 12% pay raise, with secondary demands of "raising the salary floor for the lowest-paid faculty, establishing more manageable workloads, securing more counselors for students, and expanding parental leave."
California State University has argued it cannot acquiesce to a 12% pay rise, instead countering with a proposal for "the faculty union to agree to a 5% pay raise, followed by two additional 5% raises in subsequent fiscal years". Although I didn't cover it then, back in December four universities in the system—Cal Poly Pomona, San Francisco State, CSU Los Angeles, and Sacramento State—went on a more localized strike to try and force California State University to agree to the union demands. The failure of this to move along negotiations meant escalation to this week's system-wide strike.
