PROPOSALS
Highlighted, cross-through, and underlined text effects have been used for the purpose of signaling changes and responses between the parties.
In preparation for full contract bargaining in 2025, CFA members and CSU management previewed areas of focus for changes in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Read them below:
CFA members’ letter to CSU management to open bargaining and sunshine proposal
CSU management’s sunshine proposal.
CSU management’s additional sunshine proposal.
Presentations Given at Bargaining:
Bargaining Update on the Budget and Recent Tentative Agreements
Side by Side Comparison of CFA Proposals VS CSU Management
The message is clear: Faculty and staff of the CSU don’t matter. However, management approved big salary increases for campus presidents and vice-chancellors in 2025—long before the state budget increase was announced by Governor Newsom.
We will not remain idle. CFA members fought hard to secure the $366 million in new funding for the CSU in 2026-27. That money must be spent on instruction and ensuring that faculty and staff are fairly compensated for their work.
-
We are proposing a new stand-alone article buttressing Academic Freedom protections in these difficult political times, including:
Protections regarding instruction, research, and scholarly work
-
We are proposing a new stand-alone article on Artificial Intelligence that affords faculty protections and opportunities regarding this new technology. This includes:
Protections for using or refusing to use the technology
Professional development resources to adapt pedagogy to incorporate the technology
Further protections for faculty intellectual property
-
March 28, 2025
April 4, 2025
May 2, 2025
October 15, 2025
-
Management’s proposal would limit the ability for faculty to do service time for the union and would also make release time more expensive, and capping the size of our Bargaining Team. This includes:
CFA required to give a 90-day advance notice for release time
CFA would have to compensate at the exact salary level
Campuses could hire faculty to cover CFA member’s release time
CSU Proposal - December 18, 2025
CFA Counter - February 12, 2026
-
-
Management’s proposal would greatly limit the ability for CFA to support our union siblings,should they strike, or make striking even more burdensome. This includes:
A ban on “sympathy strikes” including endorsing, promoting, or otherwise providing supportto other unions on strike
CFA could not engage in an unfair labor practice (ULP) strike until the ULP has been fullyadjudicated by the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB)
If a faculty member works during a strike, they would be required to update their campusadministrators about their work status or risk their pay being docked
A CFA member could not use their sick leave to participate in a strike, as a note from one’s physician would now be required if sick time is taken during a strike
CSU Proposal - December 18, 2025
-
Management’s proposal would tilt the scales of the grievance process to their favor, including:
10.25: No new claims can be introduced or no new information can be added to the grievancearbitration that weren’t raised in Level I or Level II of the process
10.36: A Level I grievance filed that does not have an initial meeting within 21 days and if anextension has not been mutually agreed upon, the grievance would be deemed non-arbitrable. Ifa Level II grievance is filed, the Level II decision is final with no option for further appeal orarbitration
10.7: All complaints related to discrimination would not be handled by the grievance processoutlined in the CBA but would be handled by CSU’s anti-discrimination policies and subject tofederal and state laws and procedures instead. It would make our proposed Article 16 on Non-Discrimination watered down and ineffective
CSU Proposal - December 18, 2025
CFA Proposal - February 12, 2026
-
CFA is demanding changes to the appointment article including:
Appropriate notification periods for offers of work
Salary equity and accrual of SSI eligibility across departments
Quicker timelines to longer appointments
More uniform entitlements to job security and a new long-term employment category
More efficient and streamlined eligibility process for range elevation
A clearer and less burdensome process to move to a tenure line appointment
Clarifications to the order of preference for work
Counselor hiring recommendations to come from counselor faculty
-
CFA is proposing:
Additional protections for faculty who experience discrimination, bias, or low response rates in evaluations
Better protections against misuse of quantitative evaluations
New procedures for librarian and counselor evaluation
-
Discrimination and bias in the workplace and in our society is intersectional, and explicitly connects to issues of health and safety. We demand:
Clear time frames for responses to accommodation requests, and a way for faculty to be protected should timelines not be met
All buildings and faculty work environments be accessible
Hiring and evaluation committee members undertake bias training
Each hiring committee has a designated member who acts as an Equity Advocate
Adopting a Restorative Harm Reduction plan to implement a restorative justice approach to discrimination grievances where there is a negative no
Article 16 grievances be completed within 6 months, and if a campus cannot meet this deadline they must hire outside counsel to complete the work
CFA Proposal - November 20, 2025
CSU Proposal - January 29, 2026
CFA Proposal - March, 27, 2026
-
We are proposing to rename this article to more accurately reflect the circumstances under which is it invoked, and to expand protections for faculty. We propose:
Renaming “Temporary Suspension” to “Paid Administrative Leave”
The President shall notify faculty of paid administrative leave and whether it is related to thesafety of students, the campus community, and/or the faculty unit employee receiving the notification
Extension of the sixty (60) calendar days of paid administrative leave should be rare and requires a written explanation and a reasonable timeline for conclusion
Any documents related to the leave shall be removed from faculty member’s personnel files when the leave is terminated due to the absence of a threat or no finding of misconduct
CFA Proposal - November 20, 2025
Management’s counterproposal accepts some of our changes to Article 17 but would reject others. This includes:
Management agreed with renaming this from “Temporary Suspension” but to “Administrative Leave” when our Article 17 called for renaming to “Paid Administrative Leave”
Management agreed that such leave could be extended, but if extended, a reason as to why need to be provided
Management’s proposal would, however, keep notes/documents in employee file even if leave is terminated due to the absence of a threat or no finding of misconduct. CFA proposed to remove those documents under these conditions
CSU Counter - December 18, 2025
CFA Proposal - January 29, 2026
-
Management’s proposal would eliminate section 18.7 from our CBA.
Currently under 18.7, faculty have the right to remove any documents from their PersonnelAction File (PAF) that are related to a reprimand after a period of three years and if the action causing the reprimand has not been repeated.
Management's proposal removes this process and would thus make any reprimand a part of a faculty member's permanent record.
CSU Proposal - December 18, 2025
CFA Proposal - January 29, 2026
-
Management is proposing a series of limitations on faculty and CFA involvement in the Discipline process including:
No CFA staff would serve as co-chair of faculty hearing committee panel
Removing the automatic 135-day abeyance of disciplinary action that faculty currently have a right to
CFA Counter - February 12, 2026
-
CFA is demanding an end to free work and overwork in the classroom, the library, the mental health clinics, and the athletic facilities. This means:
Courses need to have predictable caps on enrollment
Research must be compensated
Counselor direct service must be defined
Counselors and librarians must have more flexibility in their work schedules
Department chairs should have defined resourcing
Faculty on "temporary" contracts should be compensated for service work
-
-
CFA is proposing:
an expansion to the definition of “immediate family” to include chosen family and the childrenof ones’ siblings
protections for faculty who may need to take leave due to changes in visa status
makes it clear that faculty with less than full-time appoints accrue sick time on a pro-rata basis
-
CFA is demanding an expansion of the definition of family for faculty. This includes:
For paid bereavement leave:
adding the children of siblings, and persons designated by the employee whose relationship is equivalent to that of a family relationship (chosen family)
For parental leave:
Expanding the number of parental leave days to a minimum of 80 days (one full semester or 2 quarters)
12 month employees shall receive parental leave at a minimum of 16 weeks
CFA Proposal - November 20, 2025
Management rejected our proposals in favor of status quo.
CSU Proposal - January 29, 2025 -
CFA Proposal - November 20, 2025
Management’s counter proposal would:
Agrees with our proposal regarding pro-rata sick time accrual.
Rejects our proposal to expand the definition of “immediate family” to include chosen family(potentially more than one individual) and the children of ones’ siblings.
Would allow for faculty to select one designated person (either one “chosen family” or“extended family” member not covered by their immediate family definition, consistent withstate law).
-
-
We are proposing a set of expansions to the fee waiver article, including:
Coaching faculty should be included
That this benefit should be available to faculty right away—including faculty on temporary contracts
Two immediate family members should be covered at once
We also propose that fees, including doctoral program fees, be more fully covered
-
CFA is proposing some expansions to the sabbatical program, including:
Expanding eligibility to all faculty, with priority to tenure line faculty who may require it for promotion
Expanded faculty representation on Professional Leave Committees
Given uncertainty regarding federal granting agencies, we are proposing flexibility in case funding falls through
CFA Proposal - November 20, 2025Management rejected our sabbatical proposals and added one:
Management proposes giving campus presidents the authority to suspend all sabbaticals when “financial conditions warrant cost-saving measures” without clear explanation or criteria for what would prompt this decision
-
CFA is demanding fair compensation and a bold revision to the salary structure to include:
A salary minima that is no less than 10% of the Chancellor's base pay (~$79,000)
Annual COLA+2% to keep faculty ahead of inflation
Automatic step increases to move faculty up the salary structure
Post-promotion increases to address compression at the top end of the salary structure
An increase in salary range C to guard against compression
An automatic range elevation eligibility process
An equity program to address salary inversion, compression, or differentials by race, sex, or other protected categories
CFA Proposal - November 21, 2025
CSU Proposal - November 22, 2025
On April 30, 2026 we presented budget and comparable salary information to CSU management. See the presentation here.
-
-
-
-
Health and safety are explicitly about mental health as well as physical health, and there are clear connections between health and safety and non-discrimination. We demand:
All faculty workspaces should have doors that are lockable from the inside
• There shall be no reprisals for faculty who report health and safety concerns
• CSU management must provide digital security and protections for faculty information
• Provide a non-police respondent to non-violent health and safety concerns
• An ombudsperson on every campus for dispute resolution
CFA Proposal - November 20, 2025
CSU Proposal - February 12, 2026
-
Management proposes removing CFA from layoff decision-making. This means:
Management would no longer consult with CFA when there is concern for campus layoffs and would only notify CFA when they’ve already decided to lay off faculty
This removes power from CFA to meet with management to look for alternatives to layoffs
They also seek to reduce the notification time for tenured faculty and FERP faculty, as well as moving FERPing faculty to first on the list of those to be laid off
CSU Proposal - January 29, 2026
-
-
-
-