CCA Staff, including library and facility employees, to vote in union election on Monday

NPR member station KQED reports that staff at the California College of the Arts' two campuses in San Francisco and Oakland, CA will vote Monday in a union election.

Staff members have been organizing closely with Service Employees International Union Local 1021. The vote comes at a time when Bay Area union drives have been a response to overall increasing costs of living, though workers are also concerned at what effect proposed campus consolidation efforts would have on staffing levels.

Staff at CCA include library and facilities employees, 164 of whom are eligible for representation according to SEIU.

Along with cost of living, organizers are also concerned what effects consolidation and possible staffing cuts might have on students; would there be enough library staff to meet student needs? would collections have to go into storage and be less accessible to students as a result?

If CCA staff should vote to unionize on Monday, they would join the 54,000 members of SEIU 1021 already organized at colleges and universities around the Bay. It was a successful unionization campaign of CCA adjuncts in 2017 that spurred the current effort.

UPDATE: SEIU 1021 reports that CCA staff voted overwhelmingly in favor of joining the union!