this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023

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California State University faculty vote to authorize strike over pay and class sizes at all 23 locations (abc7news.com)

submitted 1 year ago by return2ozma to c/news

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[–] foggy 86 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's a workers Renaissance slowly taking shape. Let's not fuck it up.

We should be working 3-4 day weeks, 15 - 30 hours per week. We should all have maternal and paternal leave. We should have like 6 weeks PTO minimum. Our jobs should not be tied to our healthcare. We should all be making about 3-4x what we're making. The wealth is allll there. It's just in the hands of a few dbags that have gamed the system to the point where it's showing structural cracks and threatening to collapse.

Don't pussyfoot the negotiations. Start with a door in the face, not a foot in the door.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Stop I'm close

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A part-time lecturer makes $3100 for a 3-unit class for the semester. Basically volunteering.

[+] iamdisillusioned -7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

(I'm very pro union but...)

I just started a college class after a 20 year break. It's an online, asynchronous, class so the only "interaction" from the teacher is that she made a youtube video for each chapter that I can watch. The videos are terrible and were obviously made in 2016 and from the phrasing she uses, it's clear that these videos are used for course at several colleges in the area. The teacher doesn't have office hours and said we can only ask her questions via text.

How much should one earn for teaching a class in 2023 by playing videos from 2016? She even monetizes her YouTube channel and makes us sit through ads. We use an integrated online textbook that handles all the homework and testing and automatically calculates grades. Her job is more like collecting residuals than a real job. Shes not really putting out new efforts and she could easily be working another full time job at the same time. I'm pretty shocked to see what the college experience has become.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Not sure if you did the math on my figure but even at 15 units, it’s $31k per year. You want to learn something from somebody with a lot of education and experience, you need pay them fairly for their time. If the job paid well, you’d get a larger pool of qualified and passionate instructors. It’s hard to be passionate about teaching students who don’t want to be there, who are all paying way too much for tuition, while being paid a poverty wage.

I’ve been on both sides of the classroom in the past 10 years. I have a full time job that makes $130k. I think $8 to $9k for teaching a 3-unit course would be a fair wage. Roughly triple the current rate.

Also worth noting my number is for a part time lecturer. These are mostly working professionals and retired professors. They are not represented by the College Faculty Assn. However, they do represent a significant portion of instruction at CSU, and they do displace/diminish bargaining power of higher wage workers in CFA.

[–] sfbing 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That's a separate issue from pay scales. Quality of the courseware should be enforced by the institution regardless of pay rates.

But I am also curious, which campus is this?

[–] iamdisillusioned 2 points 1 year ago

UC San Diego.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

That's definitely not most of the lecturers though, especially since classes are mostly back to in person

[–] BlueAlienSmut 2 points 1 year ago

To be fair, creating online modalities while keeping students engaged and active is HARD. Yes, those videos should be updated (and maybe not monetized but… that extra cash might be nice) but it otherwise sounds like a streamlined course. I think the online courses either have to be all asynchronous or all synchronous, with no hybridity in between. And its all so hard to create and plan while keeping in mind the attention span of an 18 year old in 2023.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Since I went there mid-2010's the only investments they made were in the student union building and hydrostatic tanks at the gym. Meanwhile they couldn't staff enough people so I could progress in the ID program, having to wait semesters before they offered them. 70 students sharing the only working bandsaw (table saw was always broken). I ended up buying all the tools myself and setting it up in my garage so my classmates and I could do our work after hours. There are some degrees that need college, but the way the CSU Board of Trustees underfund some majors you may be better off getting real world experience.

[–] NewNewAccount 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Which CSU?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Long Beach

[–] Desistance 12 points 1 year ago

Good. Every union has won this year so far.

[–] Candelestine 9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Something tangential I've been wondering...

Are the profession of doctors ethically allowed to go on strike? People would die if they did. Probably lots.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

ive heard of ideas of nurses/doctors to strike by continuing to provide care but just not collecting payment/doing insurance paperwork

[–] Diprount_Tomato 15 points 1 year ago

Based and free healthcare pilled

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

There are other tactics that can be used but striking isn't out of the question. I can't speak for doctors specifically but other hospital staff can and have gone on strike before, with good success. There was just a healthcare strike at Kaiser permanente hospitals a few weeks ago. They fired a "warning shot" of sorts by striking for 3 days and threatening to strike again for as long as needed if their demands weren't met.

Ethically, I personally don't see a problem with it. By not allowing medical staff to strike you're basically telling them that their life is worth less than someone else's because they chose to pursue a public service. Because they had the gall to want to help people, they need to accept deplorable working conditions (that absolutely effect patient outcomes and result in death), poor pay, and mistreatment. That trying to make their lives and places of work better means they're bad people, undeserving of basic human dignity

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

There are ways to strike while keeping the bare minimum of staffing for critical care units. The problem is that most American healthcare systems are already staffed inadequately to the point that it would make no difference in care if there was a strike. It's not a coincidence that the main sticking point of the Kaiser strike was to force Kaiser to increase staffing levels for patient safety.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Idk about doctors, because it's more nurses and other staff that strike. But speaking for nursing, we usually give the employer advanced notice so they can hire travelers (scabs, but also a necessity so you can't really hate) to work during the strike dates. /Cue the delicious scramble and shitshow lol.

Also sometimes there's an agreement to provide X number of employees who are allowed to cross the picket line (we want to strike, but not the bad optics of "selfish nurses killing their patients").

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I was listening to the podcast "History of philosophy without any gaps" and they were talking about the origins of universities, and they were wild. Those motherfuckers would riot and destroy student towns because one of the staff/students was arrested for murder, and their strikes would last for years.

[+] [email protected] -23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Dang. Imagine living in California and complaining about not getting paid enough.

Talk about privilege, lol.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You do realize California has a high cost of living, right? It's not like everyone in CA gets paid a million a year.

[+] [email protected] -19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

That's irrelevant.

Anyone in California can move to cheaper states and get more bang for their buck. They don't want to because they feel they're entitled to the Cali lifestyle.

There is no excuse. Only greed and those who support it.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What a heaping pile of garbage.

not “anyone” can just get up and move at will. People have families to support - often extending outside their own household. Expenses going toward living in the state can eat up any bit of money that might go into savings to move.
not everyone wants to live in California just for “lifestyle”. There’s a range of reasons why you would live there - or anywhere else.
if you’re suggesting that the people who can move - like health care professionals and academics - do so instead of the government doing something about the situation, you should look and see what happens whenever large numbers of them leave their states (I.e. Texas or Florida)

[+] [email protected] -8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What are you talking about? It's easier and cheaper to leave California than it is to continue living in it.

Anyone complaining about 'not having enough money' while living in California thinks they're exempt from the most basic tenants of economics: supply and demand.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you can think of some way that a family who has no savings and is living paycheck to paycheck can simply get up and move themselves to another state in any reasonable way...I think there are a lot of people who would love to hear it.

That last though is the average "pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" line of thinking that is keeping millions of Americans in poverty.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you can think of some way that a family who has no savings and is living paycheck to paycheck can simply get up and move themselves to another state in any reasonable way…I think there are a lot of people who would love to hear it.

I never said it would be simple. How many families in California are living paycheck to paycheck while eschewing all luxuries?

I think there are a lot of people who would love to hear it.

It's called history. If you paid attention in class, you'd know that people have migrated with way less than the Californians who "don't have enough money."

That last though is the average “pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps” line of thinking that is keeping millions of Americans in poverty.

No. It's "don't sit around and wait for other people to solve your problems when you can take step to solve them yourself."

The problem is that these people think they're entitled to live in one of the most expensive places on the planet. They truly believe that supply and demand does not apply to them, and they need more wealth before the children who go without: food, water, shelter, electricity and education.

The closer we get to the root of the problem, the more people we'll find that contribute to it and the fewer we'll find that are willing to admit it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's really imperative that we stop analyzing everything from the perspective of the past and what worked in the past while ignoring both the new possibilities we have now and the differences from the past. Just because people in the past were able to migrate with less means neither that they can do so now nor - more importantly - that they should have to. There is absolutely zero reason these days to have tends of thousands of people living homeless, with numerous millions more living in or on the verge of poverty. Saying "just leave and move somewhere else" is not a solution that makes good use of the available resources that we have.

That's the root of the problem. Complacency and elitism. Living in the past. I won't make assumptions on your feelings or beliefs, but the same points that you are making are the same ones that those at the top constantly make to legitimize their negligence to do any bit of good for the rest of us. Because those very people would love to continue living in the past. Why would they want to see change?

And believe me, I understand that for some people it makes perfect sense to move. I'd imagine that many of these CSU faculty have that option available to them as they are likely in much more fortunate situations. Telling them though to leave - or creating and maintaining the conditions to support that - is the worst thing they could possibly do. Texas, Florida, and other states made these same decisions - not through economics but through social policy - and pushed out doctors and academics. Now, health care access has plummeted and numerous educators have left the state or exited the field. All at the detriment of the people who don't have the ability to get out themselves.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago

Okay. Let me know when these problems get solved doing something I don't suggest.

I can wait.

[–] Garbanzo 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Anyone in California can move to cheaper states and get more bang for their buck.

Are you 14? I'm honestly asking because most adults would realize there's a correlation between cost of living and the paycheck you can expect to bring home in any given area. Most adults probably also realize that anyone living in Bakersfield isn't getting the "Cali lifestyle" that you're so obviously jealous of.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yes, and you actually have a chance at owning property outside of California even if you make less. People in Cali are just passing a bunch of money around at the top. There is no excuse for most of them to be 'stuck' there. It's not 'impossible' for them to leave. They just don't want to because they feel entitled to live in Cali. They think supply and demand doesn't apply to them, lol.

You're clearly just upset I'm calling out greed and excess wealth for what it is. Probably because you don't want to acknowledge that you, yes you, have the power to change your life.

Anyways, keep sitting around and waiting for others to solve your problems. I'm sure it will work out, eventually.

[–] Garbanzo 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

they feel entitled to live in Cali

Imagine feeling entitled to living where you were born. The audacity!

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago

Dang, and actually defending it, too.

[–] thenightisdark 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What an odd take. Since you're not California you're basically saying hey look at those people over there they're taking care of their own business. And then you decide to butt in.

What's your skin in the game You don't live in California You don't work in California You don't vote in California why do you care?