The Teamsters Local 2010 union held one-day strikes throughout the California State University system on Tuesday.
The Sacramento State strike was held at the north entrance of campus, on the corner of State University Drive and J Street. Demonstrators took turns walking across the four corners of the main intersection with signs that read “Step Up or Strike Out.”
“We tried to go to the negotiations and they walked away from the table,” Matt Mason, the chief steward and executive bargaining member of Local 2010, said. “They’ve canceled our bargaining sessions.”
According to a statement released through CSU’s Human Resources, the CSU concluded that the strike planned by Teamsters today was unlawful, as the parties involved are still engaged in the bargaining process.
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In their statement, the CSU assured that campuses will remain open with contingency plans in place to fully maintain university operations with minimal disruptions made to the students and staff on campus.
Tony Valdez, a building service engineer for Sac State, said the conversations surrounding a potential strike have been going on for several years now.
“We are at the point where we’re gonna have to shut down the boilers if we lose any more people,” Valdez said. “By January, we may be shut down.”
There has been a sharp decrease in building service engineers available at Sac State to cover specific zones assigned to them. There are only two engineers available on Monday, three on Tuesday through Thursday and only one engineer available on Friday, said Valdez.
Mason said he hopes the CSU comes back to the bargaining table as the Teamsters proposed a 20-step increase proposal back in September.
“We want, obviously, the bargaining members of the CSU to grant the authority to come back to the table with a better offer,” Mason said.
Raul Echeverria, a supervisor for facilities at Sac State, attended the strike in solidarity with Local 2010 and said he believes the step increase proposal provided to the CSU should have been given earlier in the year.
“I hope that’s all it takes for us to get labor practices in place,” Echeverria said. “And if we don’t, we’re probably going to strike for longer than one day.”
