California State University student workers vote to unionize, creating largest such union in country
SAN FRANCISCO– Student workers at California State University have voted to join a union to bargain for better wages, sick leave, paid parking and other benefits with the university, creating the nation’s largest labor union, officials announced Friday.
The California Public Employment Relations Board said 7,252 student workers submitted electronic ballots between Jan. 25 and Feb. 22, with 7,050 voting in favor of joining the California State University Employees Union (CSUEU).
Student assistants at the nation’s largest four-year university system filed a petition with thousands of signatures last April asking state authorities to approve their union elections and organized ballot campaigns across the university’s 23 campuses.
The university’s 20,000 student assistants will join CSUEU/SEIU Local 2579, which already represents 16,000 university employees.
The student workers say they are underpaid and unappreciated. They are paid $16.25 an hour, which is the state minimum wage, are not given sick leave and are not allowed to work more than 20 hours a week.
“Many of us will only be here for four years. But we know this doesn’t just apply to us, this applies to every student worker who comes after us,” Gem Gutierrez, a student worker at Sacramento State, said during a Zoom meeting after the voting results were announced.
CSU Vice Chancellor for Human Resources Leora Freedman said in a statement that the university respects the student assistants’ decision to unionize and “looks forward to negotiating in good faith with CSUEU’s newly formed student assistant unit.”
Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, told students Friday that they are making history as the nation’s largest student worker union. “I am here to tell you that your victory will resonate and inspire change for millions of people across the country as the next generation of leaders in our movement,” she said.
Emilio Carrasco, a junior majoring in liberal studies at California State University, Fresno, works 20 hours as an administrative assistant in the dean’s office of his university’s Department of Education. He receives financial support and some help from his parents, but he still has to work, pay the rent and buy food.
He said he is lucky that he only needs one job, but other student assistants work two or three jobs to make ends meet.
“The CSU says their goal is to help the student body ensure they are set up for success. But it’s kind of hypocritical in a way because they don’t pay a lot of student assistants enough to even support themselves, pay their rent, pay their food, pay their bills,” he said.
Last month, California State University faculty members reached a tentative contract agreement with the university, the same day that nearly 30,000 professors, librarians, coaches and other employees went on strike. Members of the California Faculty Association suspended their planned weeklong strike and returned to work the next day.