Unilateral denials of undergraduate coursework
Our contract provides for a process by which faculty can seek pre-approval for relevant undergraduate coursework to be applied towards column movement. Beginning this summer, our Union has received almost daily reports of denials by the Office of Instruction for undergraduate coursework that was already Dean approved. In response, AFT 2121 has filed a series of grievances around this unilateral change in the interpretation of our contract. Has this happened to you? Let us know! Email
aft@aft2121.org with the details.
AFT continues to push back on class cuts
On Monday, our Union brought up class cuts again while meeting with District Administration. We continue to work with the District to bring transparency, consistency and equity to the District’s practice around class cuts. The District is currently working to develop written guidelines that address which classes will always be eligible to run with fewer than 20 students, when and how to add new classes, strategies for encouraging enrollment, and guidelines for identifying which classes below 20 will continue and which will be cut. Although we agree that articulating a policy is a step in the right direction, there are still questions about how much time they will give low-enrolled classes to grow or what the target numbers will be. AFT 2121 will continue to engage the District on how these guidelines are developed and applied. Our Union is committed to working with District administration to do what it takes to consistently and fairly address faculty concerns about the negative impacts of premature cuts.
AFT is collecting information on the extent of the class closures. If your class is threatened or close because of low enrollment, email aft@aft2121.org with specific information about the class (department, course number, units, number of students enrolled).
More info
(Friday, 7/18) CFT responds to tragic separation of families by ICE: You can speak up
Rather than profiting from tearing families apart, CFT is calling on General Dynamics, CoreCivic and GEO Group to immediately terminate their contracts with ICE and make a public commitment to ensuring the health, safety and emotional wellbeing of all detainees. Furthermore, CFT is calling on public pension funds and university endowments in the state of California to examine their investment portfolios for exposure to General Dynamics, CoreCivic and GEO Group, and to raise concerns with these companies over their immigration detention practices. Pension funds and endowments should assess not only their direct holdings in these companies, but also their indirect direct investments via index fund and hedge fund investments. You can support in taking this action by joining public comment to CalSTRS this Friday:
What: CalSTRS Public Comment
When: July 20, 2018 10 am
Where: 100 Waterfront Place West Sacramento, CA First Floor Boardroom
More info
AFT 2121 members can get CEUs, apply lessons of history to today’s resistance
As summer recharges our batteries, it’s not too soon to consider options for the fall. Like, what class might I take that helps me understand unions, labor history, and lessons for resistance in the time of Trump?
In “California Labor History,” a three unit City College of San Francisco course offered at 6:10 p.m. Tuesday evenings at Mission Campus, 1125 Valencia Street, beginning August 21, we find the fight for social justice stretches back before the Gold Rush and forward to today’s battles to preserve public education, unions and the entire public sector.
In this course, taught by longtime 2121 member and retired CFT Communications Director Fred Glass, you will learn about the San Francisco General Strike of 1934, the most important event in local history most people never heard of. The hidden legacy of the General Strike surrounds and protects us still.
You will find out, via Glass’s new book, From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement (UC Press), and his public television documentary Golden Lands, Working Hands, how public sector workers gained collective bargaining rights and defended them with strikes, civil disobedience, legal strategies and legislation. Where did seniority and tenure come from? Here are the people and the struggles that made these things happen.
You will watch Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta organize the United Farm Workers, against all odds, in the Central Valley, and discover the lesser known farm labor struggles that paved the way for their successes. You will hear how civil rights activists joined with unionists to abolish legal discrimination on the basis of skin color from California jobs. You will learn how thousands of people came together one day in November 2011 to shut the Oakland Port in support of the 99%. How faculty, students, and union and community supporters saved City College. And how organized labor, the bastion of anti-immigrant xenophobia in nineteenth century San Francisco, evolved into today’s staunch defender of immigrant worker rights.
Says ESL instructor and AFT 2121 officer Jessica Buchsbaum, “Taking the class was a great introduction to labor history in California. It’s given me a better understanding and appreciation of AFT 2121’s achievements over the last 30+ years.”
The hidden history of workers in California contains many tactics and strategies that can help guide struggles for social justice today. Classroom discussion is lively. Guest speakers leaven the conversation with their stories and wisdom.
The course is good for CEUs and transferable to CSU and UC. More information or to register: go to www.ccsf.edu. For registration assistance email Bill Shields at the Labor and Community Studies Department, wshields@ccsf.edu. Contact instructor Fred Glass for questions about course content, fglasscft@gmail.com.
Get the flyer
Summer pay
The new contract that our Union fought for and won goes into effect on July 1. This includes new, higher pay rates for all.
July pay will reflect the increase in base pay for faculty working full-time. HOWEVER, administration has told us they won’t be able to update the part-time pay scales until August.
That means July paychecks will reflect the old rates for July part-time assignments and full-time overload. In August, those working part-time and overload will receive retro payments to make up the difference.
August checks should have the correct new rates for all faculty.
If you want our Union to be able to keep fighting for you, sticking together is the surest way for us to continue to win. If you have been meaning to join but haven’t yet now is
your chance to jointhe vast majority of our colleagues (88% of AFT 2121 faculty are members) who are
sticking with our Union.
Follow Us!