While California State University, Bakersfield will remain open during a faculty union strike set to take place from Jan. 22 to Jan. 26, some instructors have planned to pause instruction during students’ first week of the Spring 2024 semester.  

The California Faculty Association, representing professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors, and coaches in the California State University system, has planned a five-day strike. This comes after the CSU announced a 5% general salary increase for all faculty. The faculty union is seeking a 12% pay increase that would cost nearly $380 million dollars in recurring spending, according to the CSU. 

“If we were to agree to the increases that these unions are demanding, we would have to make severe cuts to programs. We would have to lay off employees,” said Leora Freedman, CSU vice chancellor for Human Resources​. “This would jeopardize our educational mission and cause hardship to many employees.”  

The CSU offered a 15% pay increase over three years, but a 5% increase would only be guaranteed for the current fiscal year, whereas increases for the following two years would depend on the state budget. The 5% increase, effective Jan. 31, is an agreement that the CSU system says it has come to with five of its other unions.  

“A lot of our faculty work more than one job, they’re part-time lecturers, or they work at more than one campus,” said Tracey Salisbury, associate professor and department chair of Ethnic Studies and the Bakersfield chapter CFA president. “It is just becoming a very difficult situation to live and operate in Bakersfield so we can be close to our students, because that’s the priority.” 

The CSU and Teamsters Local 2010, the union representing administrative and skilled trade workers in the UC and CSU systems, reached a tentative agreement for 1,100 skilled trade workers on Jan. 19, according to a CSU press release. The Teamsters will no longer strike alongside the faculty union.  

 The faculty union also demands manageable workloads, more counselors to improve students’ access to mental health counseling, expanded parental leave, lactation and milk storage spaces, safe gender-inclusive restrooms, and improved safety for those interacting with campus police.  

Striking faculty may withhold work by canceling classes and other student services. However, faculty are required to report their absences and are not entitled to be paid if they choose to strike, according to a letter to faculty from CSUB administrators. 

The possibility of canceled classes has raised concerns for some students about how this will affect their semester.  

“One of my professors is actually teaching during the strike, and while she’s teaching and I’m working, learning, and stuff, the students who don’t go to classes, they’re going to be behind,” said Michael Zachary, a senior kinesiology major. 

Striking faculty do not want to disrupt students and are trying to ensure that syllabi are posted on Canvas before the strike, according to Salisbury. 

The CSUB President’s Cabinet notified students and parents that the campus will be open and operating amid the potential strike in an email on Jan. 16. The email provides actions that students may take regarding their classes, including filling out an online form to report canceled classes and services.  

“Some faculty will continue to hold classes, so students should check with their instructors about their individual class schedules and assignments. If a class or service is cancelled, you are welcome to share that information with us here so that we can best assure continuity and fulfillment of instruction,” according to the email.  

CSU campuses such as Fresno State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and California State University, Northridge, have also provided statements consistent with the CSUB email to students and parents.  

A notice provided to students by San Diego State University administration identifies that the online form was developed by the CSU.  

“Whether faculty choose to participate in the strike one or more days between January 22-26, or continue to hold their classes is an individual faculty decision, so students should check with their instructors about their individual class schedules and assignments. If a class or service is canceled, you are welcome to share that information via an online form developed by the CSU,” the San Diego State notice states.  

The information will be used to measure the impacts that the strike may have on students, according to Christina Checel, the CSU associate vice chancellor for Labor and Employee Relations. However, some students and faculty have opposed the CSU’s method to report canceled classes and services.  

“I would not participate in that [reporting canceled classes and student services]. I think it’s their right to strike, and I wouldn’t tell on them [faculty], either,” said Lauren Ybarra, a sophomore liberal studies major.  

While Ybarra says that she supports the strike, she also said she is nervous about one of her classes because she has not been notified by her instructor about whether it will be impacted. 

“Student’s do not have to do the administration’s job. It is not student responsibility to report whether or not a class has been canceled … What they’re doing, that particular element, is nothing more than an administration trying to divide and conquer students and faculty,” said Dahna Stowe, a full-time sociology lecturer and the Bakersfield chapter representative to the Council For Racial And Social Justice. 

The CSUB Academic Senate released a statement on Jan. 19 in support of the strike, stating that they “disavow efforts to collect information from students” about faculty involvement in the strike. The email also calls upon the university’s interim president, Vernon B. Harper, to advocate on behalf of faculty with the CSU about the union’s demands.  

According to the CSUB email on behalf of the cabinet, students may choose an entrance without a picket line and “are not obligated to provide a member of a picket line” with their information, stating that they “acknowledge it can feel uncomfortable to cross a picket line.” 

“They [administrators] are not consulting us before they send out that information,” said Salisbury. “We’re not going to challenge anybody that’s coming onto campus, so our students are not in danger.” 

Salisbury says that approximately 200 faculty members are expected to join the picket lines at CSUB beginning Monday.