Vote it Down Talking Points

Salary

We need a living wage!
Pay must keep up with inflation and cost of living!
Administrators’ pay isn’t contingent; why is ours?
Contingent raises are “maybes” only!

What a YES Vote Means	What a NO Vote Means
We settle for a contract that does not meet the basic needs of our lowest paid, most precariously employed lecturer faculty, our faculty whose health and safety are at risk, or our students who need adequate counseling resources.	We fight for a fair contract that supports faculty living and working conditions alongside students’ learning and mental/emotional well-being.
We stay locked into this insufficient contract until 2025.	We resume bargaining in 2024.
We allow CSU to funnel tuition revenue into investments and hoard profits instead of funding instruction, counseling, and community health and safety.	We hold CSU accountable to students and taxpayers for its mismanagement of public money, and demand the release of discretionary funds for instruction, counseling, and community health and safety.
We accept lavish administrative compensation over barely adequate faculty compensation.	We oppose overspending on management bloat and demand that CSU compensate all faculty employees fairly.
We concede our constitutional rights to free speech and academic freedom by dropping both our unfair labor practice and violation of free speech lawsuits against the CSU.	We won’t let CSU bully us! We continue to sue the CSU for unfair labor practices and violating our constitutional and academic-freedom rights.
We are okay with the status quo!	We want change: more accountability and transparency from the CSU, and a fair contract for all!

Workload

Faculty teaching conditions are student learning conditions!
We need course caps!
We need fair, equitable, inclusive and quality teaching!

What a YES Vote Means	What a NO Vote Means
We’re OK with individually objecting to class-size increases and filing individual grievances as our only recourse while campus administrators rampantly cut sections and raise course caps.	We fight for clear, enforceable language around workload and class size to support student success:More attention to diverse student needsBetter learning outcomesIncreased retention and graduation ratesHigher-quality college experience for students
We’re fine with teaching classes that are too big to be effective, and with having more students than we can serve.	We fight for clear and enforceable language on workload and a reasonable teacher/student ratio.

Mental Health Counselors

We are people first!
Students need accessible mental-health services now!

What a YES Vote Means	What a NO Vote Means
We leave students without access to professional mental-health counseling.	We support and protect our students’ mental health by demanding a better counselor-to-student ratio.
We accept an impossible workload for counselors.	We need student-to-counselor ratios that will meet our student’s immediate needs.
We maintain an impossible workload for non-counselor faculty and staff and shoulder the weight of the student mental-health crisis even though we are not trained counseling professionals.	We need more counselor hires to support our students’ mental health needs so they can survive and thrive.
We accept a contract without enforceable measures for improving access to mental-health services. Aspirational language and an “agreement to meet” in 2026 are unacceptable, especially as some campuses resort to outsourcing using for-profit, non-union telehealth agencies.	We need clear and enforceable language to hold the CSU accountable for improving access to mental-health services.

We need to be safe!
We need to stop police harassment!

What a YES Vote Means	What a NO Vote Means
We deprive faculty of guaranteed protection and a sense of safety during interactions with campus police, particularly faculty of color and LGBTQ+ faculty.	We fight for guaranteed protections for faculty during interactions with campus police and prioritize the safety of all faculty members, particularly faculty of color and LGBTQ+ faculty.

We need dignity!
We need accessible private lactation spaces and gender-inclusive bathrooms!

What a YES Vote Means	What a NO Vote Means
We deprioritize access to safe alternatives to gender-specific restrooms for our LGBTQ+ faculty, staff, and students.	We prioritize the safety of LGBTQ+ faculty, staff, and students by ensuring access to safe, gender-inclusive restrooms.
We deprioritize access to safe, equipped lactation spaces for our faculty, staff, and students.	We prioritize the safety of people who are lactating and ensure safe, accessible, equipped lactation spaces.
We settle for aspirational language regarding lactation spaces that don’t require a timeline or specific action items.	We demand specific action items and timelines to meet faculty, staff and student needs for lactation spaces.
We allow the CSU to violate California law requiring employers to provide safe, private, accessible, equipped lactation spaces	We require the CSU to guarantee what California law already mandates: requiring employers to provide safe, private, accessible, equipped lactation spaces.

We’re part of a worldwide workers’ movement!
The whole world is watching!
NO to defunding education!

What a YES Vote Means	What a NO Vote Means
We subject ourselves to management’s whims in determining our pay and our working and living conditions.	We empower ourselves and OUR union to continue fighting for fair pay and decent working and living conditions.
We enable the strikebreaking and undermining of nationwide and global labor movements.	We uplift the growing nation-wide and global labor movements, and support workers’ struggles everywhere.

Union Democracy & Contract Process

We need democratic decision making!
One member, one vote!

What a YES Vote Means	What a NO Vote Means
We abandon open bargaining and give tremendous concessions to management, accepting meager gains, unacceptable contingencies, and aspirational language.	We protect open bargaining and uphold a mandate to fight for historic gains rooted in enforceable contract language, not contingencies or aspirations.
We concede to an undemocratic process by accepting closed bargaining and decision-making without consultation now and in the future.	We fight for an open and democratic bargaining process that solicits input and reflects the will of membership across all CSU campuses.
We affirm a hierarchical power structure that diminishes transparency and undermines union democracy.	We believe in and grow a union that represents its members and trusts in our collective power.