California State University has reached a tentative contract agreement with the Academic Professionals of California, the first labor deal the system has struck this bargaining cycle, even as tens of thousands of faculty and staff remain locked in far more contentious negotiations that could still end in a strike.
The agreement, announced Thursday, covers more than 3,700 student services professionals across the CSU's 23 campuses, according to California State University. Under the deal, APC-represented employees would receive a one-time payment of $3,325 in December, a 4% salary increase retroactive to July 2026, and another 4% raise in July 2027, as reported by the Sacramento Bee. APC had bargained only over salaries for the past year after securing a 5% raise in 2024, and the union will not return to full contract negotiations with CSU until 2028.
APC president Mario Baeza said the deal puts more money in members' pockets, per the Sacramento Bee's reporting. CSU Chancellor Mildred García said the agreement provides immediate and ongoing financial benefits while supporting student success, the outlet noted. The agreement still requires ratification by a majority of APC members, who have until November 2 to vote, and the CSU Board of Trustees would consider it at its November meeting if it passes.
Faculty Talks Stall Out at Fact-Finding
The APC deal stands in sharp contrast to the state of talks between CSU and the California Faculty Association, which represents roughly 29,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches. The union declared impasse in July 2026 after CSU proposed a 3% salary increase, the Sacramento Bee reported. Negotiations are now at the fact-finding stage, with the union disputing not just salary but workload, academic freedom and artificial intelligence policy — and CFA has said it could call a strike if no agreement is reached.
A state-appointed mediator certified CFA and CSU management to move into formal fact-finding on September 14, after initial mediation failed to resolve those core disputes, according to the California Faculty Association. Under California's Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act, a three-member fact-finding panel submits its findings and non-binding recommendations privately, followed by a 10-day period before the report can be publicly shared. Publication of the report is the final statutory step after which job actions become legally allowed, the union has explained.
That path isn't hypothetical. In January 2024, CFA conducted a one-day strike, which ended with a tentative deal including a 10% salary increase, half retroactive, according to The Poly Post. Non-salary issues have also hung over this year's talks: CFA has separately opposed a proposed $2 million CSU contract with Texas-based telehealth company TimelyCare for student mental health counseling, raising concerns that outsourcing would pull work away from union-represented campus counselors.
Staff Union Still Negotiating First Contracts
The California State University Employees Union, the system's largest labor group, is in its own standoff. CSUEU represents about 15,000 staff members in healthcare, operations, clerical and technical support roles, whose contract expired July 1, 2026, plus roughly 20,000 student assistants and 1,000 workers employed by private-sector campus auxiliaries, for whom the union is negotiating first-ever contracts. CSUEU is pushing for salary raises and reduced reliance on temporary workers, according to the Sacramento Bee.
A CSU study found staff salaries are slightly below the market median for higher-education institutions and about 10% below the general industry standard, the Sacramento Bee reported. CSU and CSUEU have reached no agreement on economic demands so far. Tension over working conditions isn't new to CSUEU members: earlier this year, Sacramento State administrators scaled back a mandatory five-day return-to-office policy for academic affairs staff after CSUEU leadership condemned telework crackdown as damaging to worker morale.
On September 29, members from CFA, CSUEU, APC and Teamsters Local 2010 staged a four-union rally at the Student Services Building at Cal Poly Pomona, while broader statewide rally efforts included Sacramento State events on September 23 and Northridge on September 30, per The Poly Post's reporting — notably, APC joined the demonstration even as it was finalizing its own tentative deal. Baeza said APC will continue supporting the other unions, the Sacramento Bee reported. CSU also held worker-led demonstrations and rallies across its campuses, and a CSUEU member attended a group meeting at the Sac State student union in Sacramento in early September.
Dueling Numbers Over What CSU Can Afford
Money is at the center of the dispute, and both sides are reading the same budget very differently. CSU received more than $500 million in new ongoing state support for 2026-27, along with $175 million from tuition increases and $25 million from 1% enrollment growth, giving the system more than $700 million in new operating funds, according to the Sacramento Bee. CSU says it has allocated $377 million of those new funds to employee salaries and benefits, and the university maintains it is committed to providing high-quality health benefits while discussing the long-term effects of rising healthcare costs with workers.
Unions, meanwhile, point to other revenue sources as evidence the system can afford more. In June 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a state budget that included $365.7 million in new funding for CSU, a 7% increase that labor unions have highlighted during negotiations, per The Poly Post. The CSU Board of Trustees also approved a multi-year tuition plan in September 2023 raising undergraduate tuition 6% annually from 2024-25 through 2028-29, projected to generate roughly $840 million in additional revenue over five years, according to California State University. Budget uncertainty, essential priorities and rising healthcare costs remain part of the debate, while unions argue that new revenue should support stronger cost-of-living adjustments.
Executive pay has also become a talking point in the standoff. When CSU Trustees appointed Chancellor García in July 2023, they set her base salary at $795,000, plus $108,000 in housing and auto allowances and $80,000 in deferred compensation — a 27% increase over her predecessor's pay, according to CalMatters. The negotiations also center on compensation for general staff and faculty. CSU says it is working toward agreements that provide competitive compensation and high-quality benefits while supporting students and long-term financial sustainability, though for now, the APC agreement remains the system's lone breakthrough as faculty and staff negotiations continue.
