After months of negotiation, the staff, administration and adjunct faculty at the California College of the Arts (CCA) have reached agreements on two union contracts. The agreements, announced on 8 April, come after staff and students staged a four-day strike in February over what they alleged were unfair labour practices, low pay and unsafe working conditions.
The new agreements come amid a unionisation movement at art and culture institutions around the US, which has recently extended to large corporations that have long campaigned against labour organising, including an Amazon warehouse in New York City and various Starbucks locations.
This is a major victory for both of the unions representing CCA workers. Union members among staff and adjuncts both voted overwhelmingly in favour of ratifying the new contracts, with 98% and 96% voting to approve, respectively. This is the first contract for the CCA staff, which first moved to form a union with local 1021 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in 2019. This is the second successful contract that the union for adjunct faculty members at the college has bargained for, though it has been in negotiation for almost two years. The adjunct union was formed in 2014 and is also part of SEIU 1021.
The staff contract includes a 5.5% salary increase over the next two years. Additionally there will be another 3% increase in the third year, which will give all union members a $50,700 minimum salary and raises for others. There will be $1,500 awarded in July 2022 and the following year for all workers making less than $28 per hour. Additionally, they also bargained to recall rights and severance pay, negotiations surrounding layoffs, pathways to promotion and more.
The adjunct contract includes an 8.5% raise over the next three years as well as a halt to a practice known as “half-lines”, where adjuncts are paid for only half the rate of a full course if it is under-enrolled.
“The feeling of the bargaining team is that we made significant progress on our priorities: we established a minimum wage at CCA that represents a more than 30% raise for the lowest paid staff people, made big improvements to job security and secure effects bargaining [which requires employers to negotiate with the union over how certain business decisions will impact workers] ahead of campus unification, and also established real seniority and pathways to promotion,” Piper Alldredge, a bargaining member on the CCA staff union and a studio manager at the college, says. “All of these improvements will help people feel like they can stay in their jobs, reduce the burn and churn that has been taken for granted as a fact of life here at CCA, and that will improve the experience of students as well.”
The two new agreements will directly affect 130 unionised staff members and 500 adjuncts at the college, which is one of the premiere art schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. CCA currently operates locations in both San Francisco and Oakland, though as of the fall semester will consolidate all its activities at its San Francisco campus.
“These agreements are an important step toward a productive, long-term partnership between the college and the union,” Ann Wiens, vice president of marketing and communications at CCA, says. “Throughout the negotiation process, the college was mindful of the distinct roles and needs of our ranked faculty and non-union-represented staff as well as those represented by the union. We are confident that these agreements prioritise equity among all of CCA’s valued employees, while supporting the ongoing sustainability and growth of the college.”