On August 30, the CSUEU Bargaining Team met with the CSU Board of Trustees at CSUN. After failing to negotiate, CSUEU members marched across campus under 100 degree weather. Among the crowd were faculty, staff, and student assistants.

Esteban Martinez has worked in gardening at CSUN Housing for 21 years, never receiving a raise above 3%. Inflation has hit him particularly hard, pumping enough gas to commute from Lancaster, California.

Martinez is one of 16,000 employees under the California State University Educational Union with one simple demand: pay equity.

Golden Bachelder, a former student assistant at the CSUN Learning Resource Center and current AS Attorney General, joined the movement to unionize earlier this year. He went to Sacramento on Tuesday to advocate with legislators to let students join the union.

Bachelder said that CSUN is not respecting the minimum wage of $16.90 set by Los Angeles County. “We are being exploited. And for some reason, we are exempt from paid sick leave, which is really concerning since we just came out of a pandemic,” Bachelder said.

Bachelder believes that students are being discouraged to join the union.

“We reached the number of signatures required to force a union election, but [the CSU] is finding ways to set the goalposts back by changing list requirements,” Bachelder said. There is currently no minimum requirement for signatures, which has elongated the process of conducting a union election.

In Sacramento, Bachelder noted the support of California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and State Senator Caroline Menjivar. “They are on our side,” Bachelder explained.

There is no interest in backing down, especially for Martinez.

“We need to stay on strike. LAUSD went on strike and got what they wanted. Threats don’t work anymore, striking does,” Martinez explained. Martinez, along with his coworker Jose Solis, believe that maintenance workers are often excluded from wage negotiations.

“For years, I have been hearing about raises, but I feel like us at the bottom never get anything. Those in office settings, like management, are always prioritized,” Martinez said.

Moreover, Martinez and Solis navigate the increased cost of union membership and campus parking fees.

“Life is so expensive. It doesn’t make sense to keep paying us the same amount,” Solis said.

The CSUEU is expected to have another bargaining session on September 19 at California State University, Dominguez Hills. No intention to back down seems to arise. As stated in the official CSUEU website, “we got to see if Management was serious after we presented a serious proposal last time. They failed the test and it’s time we show that we’re serious.”