California State University student workers vote to unionize, creating largest such union in country

SAN FRANCISCO — Undergraduate student workers at California State University voted to join a union to negotiate better pay, sick time, paid parking and other benefits with the university, creating the largest such union in the country, officials announced Friday.

The California Public Employment Relations Board said 7,252 student workers submitted electronic ballots between Jan. 25 and Feb. 22, with 7,050 voting in favor of joining the California State University Employees Union, or CSUEU.

Student assistants at the largest four-year university system in the country last April submitted a petition with thousands of signatures asking state authorities to approve their union election and organized get-out-the-vote campaigns at the university’s 23 campuses.

The university’s 20,000 student assistants will join CSUEU/SEIU Local 2579, which already represents 16,000 university staff members.

The student workers say they are underpaid and unappreciated. They get paid $16.25 an hour, which is the state’s minimum wage, don’t get paid sick leave, and are not allowed to work more than 20 hours a week.

“Many of us will only be here for four years. But we know that this isn’t just for us, this is for every student worker who comes after us,” Gem Gutierrez, a student assistant at Sacramento State, said during a Zoom meeting after the vote results were announced.

CSU Vice Chancellor for Human Resources Leora Freedman said in a statement the university respects the student assistants’ decision to unionize and “looks forward to bargaining in good faith with the newly formed CSUEU student assistant unit.”