The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: CSUEU

  • CSU student workers system-wide will vote on unionizing with CSUEU

    by Felix Andres Romero

    After months of organizing, students working for CSU campuses are getting ready to vote on whether they would like to unionize as part of California State University Employees Union (CSUEU). If they vote to join, the CSUEU would negotiate contracts on the student’s behalf.

    Student workers, such as Leah Baker at Cal State Monterey Bay, stress the importance of a union for this campus population.

    “CSU has student workers doing the labor that usually union employees would be doing,” Baker said. “But they’re paying us much, much less, and they’re not giving us any of [union] kinds of benefits.”

    With a unionized contract for student workers, Baker hopes that it will allow for improved conditions and benefits for student workers such as a discounted parking pass. Student Assistant Tori Umeda at Cal Poly Pomona shared why they are voting to unionize.

    “I am voting [in favor of] a union because I am sick and tired of struggling every day to make ends meet,” Umeda said. “Many of us work multiple jobs besides being students just to cover the basics like food, rent and utilities. Often, we have to work [when we’re] sick because we don’t have sick time.”

    Communications Officer for CSUEU Khanh explains how student workers can vote.

    “Voting starts on Jan. 25 [and ends Feb 22]. Student Assistants will receive an email the day before [Jan. 24] with instructions to access their electronic ballot,” Khanh said. “[Students] will be issued a PIN unique to them in order to vote. This is a historic election, the largest of its kind ever, and we know thousands of student workers are ready and eager to vote, ‘union yes,’ and join CSUEU/SEIU 2579 as the next wave of union leaders building a more equitable CSU for all.”

  • Student workers ask the CSU for union rights 

    Student workers ask the CSU for union rights 

    by August Linton

    Originally published May 3, 2023

    CSU officials are now deciding whether student workers should be allowed to unionize, after students petitioned the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) on April 17 for the right to take a union vote. This was accompanied by around 4,300 signatures from CSU student workers.

    Daniel Chaidez is a student assistant at CPH, working for the university’s Waste Reduction Resource Awareness (WRRAP) Program. He says that the Let Us Vote campaign will hopefully give students a better foothold for bargaining with the university. 

    “It would just make things a little more equitable and bring a little more awareness to the issues that student workers are currently facing,” Chaidez said.

    Chaidez tabled on the UC Quad on April 18 along with Stephen Green, a labor relations representative for CSUEU, the CSU employees union. The CSUEU is taking an active role in supporting students working for unionization. 

     “When hiring a lot of student assistants it’s very unorganized in a lot of ways,” Chaidez said. “It feels like it’s just a way for the school to get easy labor from students.”

    “[Student Workers are] a pretty significant part of the workforce that keeps this campus running, or the system running,” Green said. “And they don’t get treated with a lot of respect. They get abused, and they have no voice at all in their working conditions.”

    Chaidez thinks that better parking infrastructure for student workers would be a good first step, either with subsidized/discounted parking passes or reserved spaces. Another concern for Chaidez is the weekly hours caps for student workers. 

    “A lot of students are cut off at 6 or 7 hours a week,” Chaidez said. “And that’s not really working for a lot of people.” 

    Many student assistants and employees are paid minimum wage, and at 6 or 7 hours a week, this forces them to supplement with second or even third jobs to make ends meet. More jobs means less time for students to study, let alone relax. 

    Some CSU student workers are even paid less than the minimum wage in their area. This is because the CSU only pays state-wide minimum wage as a state-wide organization, as reported by CalMatters.

    If the board approves this request, workers at CSU universities will have the opportunity to organize, something which is automatically given to non-student workers. 

    “It’s kinda a new thing for students to have a union on campuses,” Chaidez said. 

    Other universities and university systems have had high-profile unionization processes recently, including the University of Oregon and the UC system, according to Green. If the request to unionize at the CSU is approved and the students vote to unionize, the resulting organization would be the largest student employee union. 

    “Generally, the PERB is pretty worker-friendly,” Green said. “I think we have a pretty good case, that we’ve submitted a sufficient amount of legitimate signatures.”

    In the meantime, advocates continue to gather support, hoping to apply pressure to the PERB.

    Student workers who wish to join the unionization effort can contact the CSUEU to sign a union card, and to add their signature to the PERB petition.

    “You don’t want to assume these things, so we’re still gathering more signatures,” Green said.