CSUEU Headquarters report on the AB 369 Steps Bill.
FINAL vote tally: 69-3, with 8 Republican legislators voting in support!
After nearly 1,000 hand-delivered letters, numerous face-to-face meetings, and hundreds of emails, our collective work has netted a big win today: the Assembly passed CSUEU-sponsored AB 369 to reinstate 5% salary steps for CSU support staff!
AB 369 was approved by a bi-partisan vote of 52-0, with more votes to come.
A huge THANK YOU goes out to each and every person who has done their bit to #StepItUp because #23YearsIsLongEnough! Also a special salute to Assemblymember Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) for standing up with us for justice.
“We still have a ways to go, but I’m confident our Union and coalition members will continue to put in the work that’s needed,” said CSUEU Legislative Committee Chair Vicky McLeod.
In 1996, the CSU ignored contract negotiations and unilaterally eliminated salary steps, and for 23 years the CSU has been unwilling to restore steps, or even to bargain this merit salary increase. Of the state’s 233 state agencies, the CSU is the only one that doesn’t provide salary steps, and CSU support staff are the only employees out of 210,000 state employees who don’t receive steps.
The inability of CSU support staff to move through their salary ranges has resulted in new hires, on average, earning over $780 more a month than long-term employees who have worked in the same job classification, at the same campus, for a number of years. With the loss of salary steps, nearly two-thirds of CSU support staff have seen new hires brought in at a higher pay rate than more experienced co-workers.
AB 369, authored by Assemblymember Dr. Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), and co-sponsored by SEIU and Teamsters, will next be considered by the Senate Education Committee.
Our stories and voices count! The next critical phase of the campaign will be outreach to state Senators.