Current Structure
Today, Chapter Leadership includes:
- President
- Vice President
- Records Officer
- Treasurer
- Chief Steward
- Bargaining Unit Representatives
Chapter Presidents are voting members of the Board of Directors. This means every campus chapter has a vote on the governing board through direct representation.
Our chapter elections follow the rules in our Bylaws and Policy file. The Chapter President makes a call for volunteers from their members to form an Election Committee, which the Chapter Executive Board approves. This committee oversees elections for the Chapter President and the other chapter board positions including the chapter Bargaining Unit Representatives. All positions on the Chapter Executive Board are electable by chapter members. There are times when only one person applies for one of these volunteer positions on the Chapter Executive Board. When that happens, no election is needed and that person serves in that position until the next election cycle. All CSUEU elections are held every three years.
All dues paying members are eligible and encouraged to vote for their local chapter and bargaining unit representatives as well as the four state-wide elected offices: President, Vice President for Organizing, Vice President for Finance, Vice President for Representation.
Proposed Structure
Chapter Leadership becomes:
- Chief Steward
- Associate Chief Steward
- Bargaining Unit Leads
Chapter leadership serves on a Campus Council with no governance powers, purely to facilitate coordination of organizing, representation, and communication.
The roles of Chapter President, the Board of Directors, and Bargaining Unit Councils will be removed as we know them. A Regional Council will be established, representing multiple campuses through one Regional Representative. The highest governing body will now consist of the President and two Vice Presidents, who will have authority independent of the Board of Directors, which will instead serve as an advisory group. This change will diminish the influence of local chapters and eliminate Bargaining Unit Councils as governing entities.
Why this is controversial
This removes direct campus representation from the governing body.
Under the current model, chapter presidents are independently elected by members and sit on the Board automatically. Chapters currently have a level of autonomy and are responsible for managing a portion of their member’s dues, but this would no longer be true under the proposed bylaws.
Under the proposed model, Regional Sector Representatives are the only “local” elected members on the Board. They are chosen from groups of four to six campuses, and as a result a campus might not have any representation on the Board.
Grouping campuses into five regions statewide will skew power away from smaller campuses, and towards large campuses.
This is arguably the single largest transfer of power in the document.
We should talk about evolving this structure to suit the growth of our Union, but a rushed Bylaw vote which strips away local governance is not the way to do it.
