After negotiations with the CSU fell through, Teamsters Local 2010, representing skilled trade workers, went on strike across 23 CSUs on Nov. 14, including Cal State LA.
Strikers marched the picket lines at Parking Lot 2 on campus and chanted “we are the unions, the mighty, mighty unions” in front of the Cal State LA bookstore.
Dennis Sotomayor is a maintenance mechanic on campus and a board member for Teamsters Local 2010. He said that unfair working conditions are one of the reasons that he took up the picket lines.
“We’re tremendously understaffed,” Sotomayor said. Managers and others at Cal State LA ”constantly are leaning on staff members [to] do more as people leave the campus and we don’t rehire.”
He said that the various “shops” or groups of trade workers on campus do not have enough employees.
“There used to be a shop with four people, now there’s two people,” he said. “That’s the case here throughout the facilities trade department.”
Without trade workers on campus, various facilities and maintenance will stop working altogether including heating, cooling, plumbing, electricity, carpentry and maintenance work, according to Sotomayor.
”We [Teamsters] have all of the skilled trade and our facility services here,” he said. “They take care of everything that’s immediate.”
Though he said that there were a lot of issues with the work environment on campus, he is not leaving.
“Twenty-two years, I’m fully invested in this retirement system; it’s not in my best interest to leave at this point,” Sotomayor said. “I’ve been offered other employment where I could make more money, that’s not what it’s about. It’s about the family, the environment that’s created here, the workers that stand together and just fighting for what’s fair.”
Even though California State University Employee Union (CSUEU) has reached a tentative agreement with the CSU, members of the union along with others that are a part of the campus coalition including California Faculty Association, Academic Professions of California, and The Union of Academic Student Workers Local 4123 came out in support of the Teamsters’ strike.
CSUEU LA Chapter President Kenneth Castillo said that one of the biggest things that the unions have been fighting for are salary step raises. This is where employees move from one pay rate to a higher pay rate within their established salary.
“A lot of people like myself have been here 20 years and have never, not once, received a raise,” Castillo said. “The only time I get a pay increase is when we do a general salary increase called a GSI, when our unions negotiate a contract.”
Castillo said he needed to start working as a Lyft driver at night because of the poor wages.
“Without the second job, I don’t survive,” he said. “When I get paid by Cal State LA, with the bills I gotta pay – they’re gone.”
In a statement to the University Times, Cal State LA’s Public Affairs stated that there were “periodic traffic delays at certain entrances on campus due to picketing, however, the University remained open to students, faculty, staff and the public. Classes were held and campus operations continued.”
Though there were some disruptions to campus life, some students are in support of the strikes from the unions.
Daniel Iraheta, an art and animation major, said that he is in solidarity with the faculty and staff.
“I currently work for housing as a facility worker, and I work on campus, so I see the perspective of all of them: the students, the teachers and the workers,” Iraheta said. “I had a lot of professors be transparent about their wages and their benefits, or their lack thereof. I’ve heard stories that they can’t even afford food for the week.”
In response to the strike, the CSU released a statement to the University Times.
“The California State University (CSU) and the Teamsters have reached an impasse in their contract negotiations but are still engaged in the bargaining process under state law. The two sides will begin fact-finding soon, which could take several weeks to complete. Parties can continue to bargain before, during or after the fact-finding report is published. The CSU does not agree with allegations of unfair labor practices. The issues relative to this round of bargaining are yet to be ruled upon by [the California Public Employment Relations Board] PERB. The CSU remains committed to the collective bargaining process and to reaching a negotiated agreement for increased compensation with the Teamsters, as we have done with five of our other employee unions in recent weeks.”
The university said in a statement that it is “hopeful that an agreement will be reached between the Teamsters and the CSU in the days ahead.”
