Sacramento State trade workers join one-day strike at California State University campuses

Around 1,100 California State University trade workers — including plumbers, electricians and mechanics — are holding a one-day strike Tuesday at 22 campuses across the state.

Around 40 of those workers are at Sacramento State. The strike means many maintenance requests and repairs won’t happen, as workers were off the job for 24 hours starting at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday. 

Teamsters Local 2010, which represents the striking workers, has accused the university system of unfair labor practices and negotiating in bad faith. Union leaders contend workers are paid “12% below the market rate” and are the only state workers without steps, or automatic yearly salary increases based on time in a job.

“We're doing an unfair labor practice strike because the CSU has been unfair to us, suppressing our union activities,” said Matt Mason, an auto mechanic at Sac State and the chief steward on the campus for Teamsters Local 2010. “They've been walking away from the bargaining table, giving us exploding offers, taking things off the table and not bargaining in good faith.”

“This is our first, you know, shot across the bow to say, ‘hey, this is, you know, enough is enough,’” Mason said.

In a statement Monday, CSU officials said they offered a 15% increase pool over three years and that the system “remains committed to the collective bargaining process.”

Last month, the state Public Employment Relations Board granted the CSU system’s request to declare an impasse and appointed a mediator. On Oct. 30 the union announced 94% of trade workers had voted to authorize a strike.

CSU officials said since the two parties are still engaged in the bargaining process, they do not consider the strike lawful.

“Since the parties are still engaged in the impasse process, CSU does not believe the Teamsters' planned strike is lawful,” the Monday statement reads. “Should a strike take place, all CSU universities will remain open and have contingency plans in place to maintain full university operations with as minimal disruption as possible for students, faculty, staff, and visitors to our campuses.”

Tuesday’s strike comes a week after the California Faculty Association, which voted to authorize a strike last month, announced it would hold one-day strikes at four campuses in December. Sac State faculty would walk off the job Dec. 7.