CSU Staff and Student Assistants are building power together. Explore the Staff campaign or the Student Assistants campaign below, then take action to help win the standards CSU workers deserve.
Full steps, raises, job protections, and an end to the abuse of temporary work.
Staff PrioritiesPaid sick time, better wages, and rights on the job for student workers.
Student PrioritiesGet ready for the contract fight by joining the Contract Action Team (CAT)
Take Action
Employees should receive raises based on their years of work in their classification. Full steps correct years of inequity and create a real path for staff to stay and grow in their positions. Steps also ensure employees know what their raises will be on their work anniversary. We fought to win steps that now must be fully-funded and implemented.
The cost of living in California keeps rising, and and we need raises that make living more affordable. CSU employees deserve wages that make it possible to stay in the communities we serve. For employees at the end of their pay scale ("red-circled employeees"), we are demanding longevity pay increases.
CSU uses long-term temporary, part-time, or intermittent status, contracting out of our work to non-union companies with lower pay and benefits and the implementation of AI to erode job security. We demand a seat at the table for decisions about the future of work and our jobs at CSU. Our contract will protect our jobs, and the standards we have fought for, from the CSU's attempt to devalue our labor. We are united to bargain a contract that provides raises and job security and prevents CSU from eroding the standards we have fought to establish and maintain on every campus.
This campaign is about building the power to protect current workers, retain experienced staff, and make CSU jobs worth staying in. We know that winning a contract that delivers for our members will require taking action on every campus.
Negotiations are underway. The strongest message we can send management is that workers are united, informed, and ready to act together.
Join this campaign to move coworkers into action, build visibility across campuses, and grow the pressure for real gains.
I live in a mobile home community where my rent is increased by 3-4% every year. Without a steady increase in my wages, I will eventually have to move. This would be devastating because I have a mortgage. If the mobile home park evicts us, we are still responsible for the mortgage. Making the same amount of money after 10 years is demoralizing, demeaning and devalues my work and skills.
We cannot keep losing good coworkers because CSU refuses to pay enough to live in California. Campus Presidents got huge raises in the same year the CSU denied us our step increases. The CSU has the money to fully fund steps, but they aren't going to do it unless we force them. That's why we got to fight for a strong contract.
If it can be done by AI, the boss will want it done by AI. We need much stronger safeguards in place to protect workers from being replaced by AI. Management should not be able to decrease the workforce, and then expect workers to pick up the slack using AI. If they cannot prove that operational need has decreased, they should not be able to decrease staffing levels.
The CAT is made up of members who are ready to do what it takes to win a strong contract in 2026. CAT members are staff and student workers who will mobilize on campus, bring people into the fight, and if necessary, prepare for a strike. Sign up to become a leader on your campus and win the contract you deserve.
We presented this video and document to the Board of Trustees to commence full contract bargaining.
April 29 and May 7 will be the first bargaining sessions of this year.
Student assistants work in every part of campus. We support daily operations, help students and staff, and keep essential services moving. Our work matters, and our contract should reflect that.
Student assistants deserve paid sick time so no one is forced to choose between their health, their paycheck, and their education. A fair job should include the basic right to stay home when you are sick.
Student workers deserve more than the minimum. The work we do is essential to campus functions, and our pay should reflect our real contributions to the university.
Student assistants need clear rights and protections at work. Every worker on campus deserves dignity, fairness, and a voice in the conditions they work under.
Student assistants are building power for a contract that recognizes the role we play across the CSU system. We deserve wages, protections, and standards that match the importance of our work.
Student workers are essential to keeping our campuses running, face the same rising costs and workplace pressures as other workers, and deserve to be respected as real employees whose jobs are often necessary for our survival—not dismissed as temporary.
Student assistants are clear about what paid sick time, better wages, and stronger rights would mean in their day-to-day lives.
Winning paid sick time would mean I would no longer have to choose my health over being able to afford to eat if we were given sick leave. Additionally, if we made more than minimum wage, I wouldn't have to work so many hours in addition to having a second off campus job.
There are sometime when I can't come into work due to illness or other reasons and then there are sometimes I can't work because my department is closed due to staffing issues with the head of department. Having either paid time off for the days that I am scheduled but can't work or an increase in wages would allow me to feel more secure in my job and my life as a student.
It would be being able to afford living expenses, not have to worry between food and paying for parking. It would also also me to feel safer if I know who I can go to and the process for filing an HR complaint and the support given to me. It would mean less stress and less fear of going to work. It would mean safety in my workplace.
Every conversation, every signup, and every worker who gets involved makes our bargaining team stronger.
