Bargaining disagreements over pay led about 1,100 skilled workers across all 22 Cal State University (CSU) campuses to declare a four-day strike last week, organized through the Teamsters 2010 union.
Picket lines were present at each campus from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. Some 27 Teamsters members at Cal State Monterey Bay (CSUMB) – one of the smaller CSU campuses – joined the strike, including painters, plumbers, electricians and mechanics. About 15 of those workers picketed along the road to Lot 71 and outside the Otter Student Union, despite rainy weather throughout the week.
The strikes unfolded after CSU management reopened negotiations of previously agreed-upon salary increases they claimed they would no longer be obligated to pay due to budget cuts.
“[CSU] put forward their position. We gave our position, and then they immediately stopped negotiating, which is against labor practice,” said Anthony Cardinale, a painter and Teamsters 2010’s spokesman at CSUMB. “So we’re here to get them to also come back to work.”
The human resources department at CSUMB stated in an email that “Under the Teamsters’ agreement, salary provisions were contingent upon the CSU receiving a specified amount of new, ongoing state funding. … However, the Teamsters are seeking ongoing salary increases, which require permanent funding that was not provided in the state budget.”
Cardinale said to “look into some of the budget reasons that led to this, and look into the way that labor contracts and labor relations work, because this is an unfortunate example of the extreme ends of a labor relationship. But labor relationships are so important as you move forward, and as you develop your own standards for yourself within a working environment.”
Teamsters members were joined at the picket lines by representatives of other workers’ unions with a presence on campus, including the California Faculty Association (CFA) – a union that Cardinale describes as “from [his] personal experience, the greatest advocates for labor rights and the largest activists of the unions on campus.”
The skilled workers were also joined by students, some representing campus organizations. “I want to support the strike because I believe everyone should be paid fairly,” said Cori Lopez, a third-year environmental science major at CSUMB. For Lopez, the union cause is personal; their mother was a member of CFA during the faculty strike in 2024. They also joined the Teamsters picket line as a representative of Sunrise Monterey Bay, the same advocacy group that organized the “Break ICE” protest on Feb. 6.
The Teamsters union, founded in 1903, is currently the fourth-largest labor union in the US. Teamsters 2010 represents a total of around 26,000 public education workers across California.
“It’s been really heartening and encouraging to see the support from everyone here in the [CSUMB] area. We have the students that have been out, the faculty, our fellow brothers and sisters in the union world here,” said Jenny Hodges, a Teamsters 2010 representative. “We’re all in this together, and we really appreciate the support.”