The California State University Employee Union has been expressing their frustrations over their wages and protested at Matador Square against the current open-range wage system they are placed under.
Despite their attempts to bargain with the CSU and the Board of Trustees, they have not reached their goal to increase their salaries.
Jim Philliou, executive director of CSUEU, was present at the rally and stated the following regarding what the process has looked like in the past few months.
“We’ve been in negotiations with CSU since last spring for a salary reopener to increase the salaries of non-faculty staff, but also change the salaries from an open-range to a merit-salary scale system,” Philliou said. “So we’ve been bargaining a couple of times a month.”
Employees are currently being paid under an open-range merit system, which is something they are attempting to change into a merit-salary scale.
Eri Roman, the charter president of Chico for CSUEU, explained what the differences were between the two, and the benefits that would follow.
“It’s basically a system where we can advance,” Roman said. “As of right now, we are in a staggering system where we don’t get raises whatsoever unless we apply for them, and we have to prove to them that we deserve raises.”
Roman also said the CSU system is the only state entity in California that does not have a step system. “Everyone else, like the DMV or any other state entity that you can think of, does have salary steps,” he said.
So far, the only advancements with the wages have been an offer from the CSU that had been discussed earlier that same day.
The discussion was held at the campus library and the offer involved a general salary that would transition to a wage-scale system that increased within a three-year time period.
Jessyka Dalton, senior biology technician at CSU Channel Islands, was present at the rally and explained further about the CSU’s offer.
“The CSU came back with 5%, and they want to establish a 20-step system that raises salaries by 2% per step,” Dalton said.
She stated that it would take a while for workers to benefit from this proposed raise, since it involves multiple years with a small percentage, and the wage increase would be inadequate for the employees’ expectations.
Local CSUN employees present at the rally also expressed their personal insights about facing lower wages.
Julie Garcia, program coordinator, and Alma Santiago, an employee at the finance department, stated that they have witnessed more increases in costs than in salary wages.
Garcia and Santiago stated that they often are found working in a short-staffed environment, which has often made their roles more challenging, since they are left to take on more responsibilities in certain tasks.
These demands consist of processing forms and paperwork, adding and dropping classes for students, answering emails, and assisting students with any inquiries that they may have.
They also said these tasks have made their jobs more difficult since they are not often compensated for their workload.
The CSUEU intends to continue to express its demands in raising employment wages in the CSU system as they plan to follow up with the CSU’s recent offer and propose a better deal at the upcoming Board of Trustees meeting.
