Teachers' Union shares perspective as annual CBA negotiations begin
The Culver City Federation of Teachers, the union representing Culver City Unified School District’s teachers, announced Thursday that annual negotiations on the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the two entities are starting this week.
Culver City's teachers are seeking a raise in wages they feel their patience has earned them.
A post by the Culver City Federation of Teachers (CCFT) on social media Thursday outlined the union’s perspective on this year’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations with the Culver City Unified School District (CCUSD), which are starting this week. The context of recent negotiations weighs heavily on the minds of the teachers, school counselors, school nurses, speech-language pathologist (SLPs), and other specialists that the union represents.
It has been several years since teachers at Culver City schools have seen an increase to their pay, with last year’s negotiations resulting in a 2.38% increase to the health benefits funded by the District and no increases to wages.
“District employees last received a salary increase on July 1, 2023,” the post on the CCFT Instagram Thursday reads. “Employees have only received a small benefits increase for 2024 and an even smaller increase for only 3 months of 2025.”
While CCUSD negotiates a CBA with its unions that lasts for three years, both parties have the right to put forward specific articles, such as those outlining wages, in the CBA to review or renegotiate on an annual basis. Each party must publicly announce their intent at a Board of Education meeting — known as "sunshining" the proposal — before negotiations can begin, which CCUSD did at its July 14 Board of Education meeting.
The union points to recent bumps from the state budget as justification for seeking a wage increase during these negotiations. California’s state budget always includes a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) that attempts to account for inflation, but a “super COLA” that is sometimes tacked onto the base COLA was also applied this year as part of the final revision at the end of June. This bumped the overall COLA up from 2.87% to 4.31%.
That super COLA comes in the form of a $906.7 million injection into the Local Control Funding Formula meant to fund mandated paid pregnancy leave recently implemented by Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration.
On top of this, local Special Education Local Plan Areas (SELPAs) received money to fund special education services as part of the final revision to the California budget last month. The Tri-City SELPA, which CCUSD is a member of along with the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and the Beverly Hills Unified School District, received $2.5 million from this additional funding.
Christian May-Suzuki
These extra financial boons should be used in part to support the District’s employees, CCFT argues. Cuts to classified, certificated, and management staff over the past several years have placed a greater burden on the remaining staff to continue providing services at the levels expected of them.
However, these extra funds from the state do not quell looming financial concerns for CCUSD, including a loss in Redevelopment Agency funding that will leave a close to $3.4 million hole in an already rocky budget forecast. Even so, with a parcel tax on the ballot and the funding it would generate should it pass, the union feels it is time to negotiate a fair wage for all employees.
“Now is the time,” the post reads, “to make sure…we have clean campuses, safe campuses, proper supplies, and improved compensation for the people who educate and take care of students on a daily basis.”
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