New union formed for CSU student workers

CSUEU is currently recruiting members and in collective bargaining

A new union is emerging for students who work for California State University campuses, including Cal Poly Humboldt. Now, any student worker that is employed by a CSU has the option of joining the California State University Employees Union.

Amber Rae Dennis, a graduate student in the applied English studies program at Cal Poly Humboldt, is a student organizer for CSUEU. Dennis is also a student worker herself, working as an instructional student assistant and graduate teaching associate in the English department. She and others are actively working on campus in recruiting members to join CSUEU.

“We want to set an example for student workers across higher education. I don’t know if you know, but this is the first time student workers have had a campaign like this to unionize. So we’re setting a precedent,” Dennis said.

In February 2024, enough student workers across CSU campuses voted in favor of creating a union (7,052 out of 7,252 voted yes), and made it official, according to the CSUEU website. Those eligible to vote were CSU student workers who were employed from May through October 2023.

The California State University Employees Union, was incorporated in 2005 and solely represented CSU staff members as well as the Office of the Chancellor. Now student workers can be represented by this union whether they are a paid member or not.

In addition to recruiting, CSUEU is now in the collective bargaining phase between student assistants and CSU management. CSUEU’s most recent bargaining update explains that “Representatives of both sides meet together to negotiate a legally-binding contract, one that improves the job experience for workers.”

Here are a few items CSUEU is bargaining for: higher wages, an end to unpaid labor, demanding the implementation of a comprehensive sick pay policy, the introduction of holiday pay, and a reduction or elimination of parking fees. Additional proposals can be found in the CSUEU’s Unit 15 Sunshine Proposal.

So far CSUEU has secured: a grievance procedure (to protect workers from unfair discipline), bereavement leave (2 paid, 3 unpaid bereavement days) which is time away from work to grieve the death of a family member, standardized evaluation processes and some amount of paid sick time.

CSUEU sent a bargaining update email on Oct. 18 stating that, “CSU management also told us that they believe student workers are ‘students first’ and that we shouldn’t care so much about money, but rather our classes.”

It’s hard to be a student first, said Dennis, when students are getting paid under minimum wage.

“How are students able to function and focus on school if they’re not making enough money at their job to buy food or to provide housing if they don’t have a bed to sleep in and they don’t have food in their belly, how are they going to focus on their chemistry exam,” Dennis said.

According to Dennis, the CSU doesn’t believe student workers are essential workers and the CSU is “dragging their feet” in hopes for CSUEU to lose steam. However, the opposite has happened, said Dennis, with more workers joining the fight and committing to build the union.

Students that become members are agreeing to an automatic monthly $16 deduction from their paychecks. Dennis said this amount was established because that is what the lowest paid worker earns and that the money would go towards what members decide and also in the event of a strike it could be used to ensure workers are still getting paid.

Existing Student Union for “Academic Workers”

CSUEU is not the only union that CSU student workers can join; there is also the Union of Academic Workers 4123. This union represents solely academic student employees like teaching associates, graduate assistants and instructional student assistants – across the CSU system.

Union dues for UAW 4123 are $10 a month and taken out of paychecks automatically.

Head steward at CPH for UAW 4123 is Abby Keltz who volunteers her time. She is an undergraduate physics major and a computer science minor who works as a tutor, grader and supplemental instructor at CPH.

“The reason I think they should join is that the CSU is a multi-billion dollar organization and without unionizing it’s very difficult for individual workers to speak up for themselves and win any sort of protections or rights,” Keltz said.

Learning Center tutor, Lu Cronin, shared that they pay for union dues because in order for the union to continue and rates to be lower members have to pitch in. The union helps Cronin feel protected and has allowed for academic jobs to be considered real jobs rather than working for class credit, which has been the case in the past.

Right now UAW 4123 is surveying current student “academic workers” (members and non-members) to get a consensus on what should be brought up at the next bargaining session that will occur this summer.