OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — Teachers and lecturers of the California Faculty Association have sued California State University Chancellor Mildred Garcia and other CSU leaders, claiming that Garcia and other leaders of the United States’ largest university system “brazenly violated” teachers First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by attempting to prohibit teachers from talking about an upcoming labor strike during class time.
In their 25-page complaint, plaintiffs claim that on Nov. 8, faculty at CSU East Bay and CSU Fullerton received directives from their respective human resources departments to refrain from discussing a planned strike by CSU plumbers, electricians and maintenance workers during class time.
“Classroom time cannot and should not be used by faculty to discuss issues related to the strike,” a letter signed by André Johnson, the associate VP of human resources and payroll services at CSU East Bay, said.
When faculty objected to the directives as violations of academic freedom, CSU affirmed the directives, instructing faculty that any discussion of the labor strike on CSU platforms or in CSU classes was prohibited, according to the complaint.
“At CSU East Bay, campus officials provided further instruction that faculty were barred from using CSU East Bay online platforms to communicate with students in their classes about the strike. CFA is informed and believes that these directives originated with the CSU Chancellor’s office,” the plaintiffs state in their complaint.
Teachers and instructors regularly include discussions of events of public concern, including events at CSU, in their teaching, according to the plaintiffs. Since the labor strike is a matter of public concern, teaching about it is protected speech.
In a statement announcing the lawsuit, the California Faculty Association said: “As public employees, CFA members have constitutional rights to free speech. Within the context of academic freedom, this First Amendment protection applies to CFA members’ discussion matters of public concern in the context of their scholarship and teaching. We are challenging CSU’s prior restraint of our members’ academic freedom and asking that the federal court issue an injunction to prevent them from continuing to do so.”
U.S. District Judge Donna Ryu in Oakland will preside over the case.
“As labor unrest — including CFA’s own strike planned for Dec. 4-7, 2023 — continues at CSU campuses, it is critically important that faculty and other public employees are not chilled in their discussion of these matters of public concern in the classroom or through other campus platforms through which education is delivered,” the union says in its complaint.
CSU media relations did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
Meanwhile, CSU faculty hit the picket lines Monday with a rolling strike set to last through Thursday. Faculty at Cal Poly Pomona kicked off the first strike Monday, with further action at San Francisco State University on Tuesday, CSU Los Angeles on Wednesday, and CSU Sacramento on Thursday.
Faculty want a 12% salary increase and a boost in parental leave from six weeks to a full semester. The union is also demanding more manageable workloads, better access to breastfeeding stations and more gender-inclusive restrooms.
The CSU Chancellor’s Office says the raises that teachers are seeking would cost the system nearly $400 million in recurring spending.
"For context, CFA's salary demand would cost $150 million more than the funding increase that the CSU received from the state of California for all operations in 2023-24," the office said in a statement on Dec. 1.
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