Part-time employment letters

Like last year, the District just mailed employment letters to part-time faculty asking us to accept our Fall assignments. These letters do not change the existing terms of employment or contractual part-time faculty employment rights.

The language of the letter does not actively misstate the law. But it only references the Education Code so it paints an incomplete picture. Part-time faculty also have contractual rights that protect assignments and employment in various ways. In a disappointing failure to learn from last year’s mistakes, the District once again did not consult or inform AFT 2121 before sending these letters.

Although the letter instructs us to sign that we “accept” the “contract”, we are not required to do so. Your AFT team reached out to HR and has confirmed that there will be no consequences to faculty who do not return the letters.

COPE Agenda & next meeting Wednesday 8/10 at 10am

Watch out for phishing attempts

You’re probably used to ads and spam in your CCSF email. Recently faculty have reported phone calls from Barnum Financial, claiming to offer benefits information for laid-off employees, and email from Employee Benefits Group and Forthright Capital Partners, which claim to be able to advise employees about STRS and retirement. None of these are connected with our actual benefits.

These could be phishing attempts, or they could be legitimate companies looking for customers. Either way, they are not your actual benefits services. Here are some of the *real* organizations involved in our benefits and retirement:

• You can schedule a planning session directly with CalSTRS – you don’t need to use private for-profit companies.
• Our AFT 2121 Retiree Chapter is a great resource for questions. They also host a Financial Planning Day in January, with retirement information and workshops.
• CCSF HR has a benefits page. CCSF also works with the San Francisco Health Service System (HSS). HSS uses the P&A Group as their COBRA administrator.
• CCSF hired Keenan & Associates to manage the SERP and some other financial services.
• AFT National has a variety of member benefits.
• Summer is AFT National’s student debt forgiveness tool.

Dear City College Community,

For over 80 years, City College has been providing opportunity and hope to San Franciscans. Free for SF residents, and with over 300 programs to choose from, City College is San Francisco’s largest and most accessible source for new job skills, passions, & degrees. Whether it’s firefighting, nursing, cybersecurity, or visual media and design, City College changes lives.

As CCSF’s faculty union, AFT 2121 is launching #CCSFintheCity, an art project and enrollment campaign that will remind San Franciscans of everything City College has to offer. Two CCSF student artists, Alma Garrison & Daniel Ramírez Herrera, worked with Amy Diaz-Infante and other AFT 2121 faculty to design a double-sided poster that will be at the center of this enrollment drive. Based on community input, Alma and Daniel crafted a poster with a map highlighting the college’s historic legacy in San Francisco’s communities on one side, and on the other side information on CCSF classes, programs, and registration.

Come get your free copy of this beautiful poster this Saturday, August 6, 10am-12pm in Dolores Park at an Enrollment Campaign Kickoff Event. Meet by the Hidalgo Statue near the Church & 19th St entrance to Dolores Park, pick up a poster for your home, and then join CCSF staff, faculty, students, and others in distributing posters to the people of San Francisco.  

RSVP for Saturday now & share this invite far and wide: https://bit.ly/EnrollCCSF

Today your committee on political education met with and interviewed candidates from a labor and public educator slate for Board of Trustees including Anita Martinez, Anabel Ibáñez, and Susan Solomon, labor ally candidates who will be running against incumbent trustees. We have an opportunity to consider an endorsement for these three candidates who are running together as a slate hoping to achieve unified labor backing and stand up for our college and public higher education. Voting will be open for the next 24 hours. Here is the link: https://surveyhero.com/c/shckyie4

Remember to cast your vote, and for those who were unable to make the meeting, you can view recorded interviews with the candidates as well as their submitted questionnaires on the AFT website (password: COPE2022)

You made a promise in May, that trustees’ yes vote on layoffs would mean your NO votes in November you can begin today by participating in your union’s endorsement process.

​Special Meeting of the Board of Trustees July 14th 8:30 AM – 5 PM 

Sign up to make public comment on agenda items. 

• Please note that there will be no public comment for items not on the agenda. This meeting was initially scheduled as a retreat, but has been re-branded as a noticed Special Board meeting. 
• We think you’ll agree that each of these items might reasonably be identified as moments to discuss the college’s poor priorities in cutting classes and laying off faculty, and suggest you tailor your comments to match the item you choose: Items 5 (State of the College Discussion), 9 (Overview of District Mission Accomplishments), and 11 (Board Self-Evaluation and Development of Board Goals). 

The District has failed to publicly acknowledge the massive infusions of money coming to the college in the state’s newly adopted budget. Is it to protect the narrative behind Chancellor Martin’s layoff agenda? Despite repeatedly claiming that the savings from layoffs must be used for such priorities as deferred maintenance, there has been no mention of significantly higher that expected funding for deferred maintenance this year. Our estimates indicate upwards of $25M in one-time investments to accompany the nearly $15M in ongoing COLA funding. 

These infusions illustrate the State’s recognition that our institutions are in need of new and ongoing funding, including one-time maintenance funds, as part of pandemic recovery. There are also ongoing funds to provide educational opportunities to students. It’s unacceptable for the College and Board to ignore this budget news—especially in light of the damage layoffs did last semester in the name of the budget.

AFT 2121 has said all along that this flawed and shortsighted layoffs plan, set in motion by the Chancellor, was unnecessary. This new infusion of tens of millions in financial support means it is time for the Trustees to step up and take action! The Trustees have a responsibility to the community that elected them. It is time for them to stop blindly backing the Chancellor and stand up for the true mission of our college. It is time for them to stand up for our students and the San Franciscans they were elected to serve. Demand they rescind the unnecessary layoffs and restore the schedule of classes now! 

To learn more about the California 2022–23 budget and its impact on education, as signed, visit “State budget continues record funding for public education, secures funding for part-time faculty healthcare.”

​

How to make a public comment: 
Requests to make public comment must be submitted in advance, no later than 30 minutes before the start of the meeting, via email to: publiccomment@ccsf.edu or via phone to: 669.444.1266.

Please submit the following information:

1. Name
2. Meeting Name and Date
3. Agenda Item Number
4. Phone number if participating by phone

At the appropriate time the speaker will be unmuted.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA):
Request for sign language interpreters must be made at least 72 hours in advance to ensure availability. Please e-mail the Board Liaison, Linda Shaw at lshaw@ccsf.edu for assistance.

Salaries Restored as of July 1, 2022

The temporary agreement you made with the District in May 2021 has ended. As of July 1 your salary was restored to the salaries in the contract, including any applicable step increases you earned in the interim.

To be clear–Chancellor Martin’s unnecessary layoffs had nothing to do with this restoration. Your temporary agreement ended June 30th, and, by law, your salary returns to the level set by your 2018-2021 contract. This contract remains in effect until you and the district agree upon a new one. See your 2018-2021 contract here & see more info here on how to check your July paycheck to make sure you are being paid at your contractual, pre-concessionary agreement rate, plus any applicable step increases.

Your bargaining team is continuing to push Chancellor Martin to negotiate in good faith over further salary increases to which you are entitled. Last May, CCSF administrators committed to negotiate with you over retroactively increasing your salaries should the college receive any new revenue. The District has received new revenue–from faculty retirements and the State (including a $9 million COLA)–but it has refused to bargain in good faith over retroactive salary increases. The California Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) recently upheld your Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) claim alleging bad faith negotiations over this retroactive salary increase. And you as faculty will be pursuing this matter further. Stay tuned for updates.

Signature Gathering Success!

You needed 9,000 signatures to bring your historic City College funding measure SF WERCS to voters in November, and this morning, a contingent of City College community members delivered over 20,000 signatures to the San Francisco Department of Elections to qualify SF WERCS for the ballot in November. That is a show of force, and your hard work made it happen. See this link for a livestream of the press conference & stay tuned for more on the event this morning.

You did it! Hundreds of you had thousands of conversations over the past four weeks, with fellow parents at your child’s daycare center, nursing colleagues on your UCSF shift, and friends, family, and community members throughout the city at parks, farmers markets, and Pride.

You now have officially gathered the signatures you needed to bring this historic CCSF funding measure (#SFWERCS) to voters in November.

Join your CCSF community today at 12pm on the Polk street steps of City Hall for a CCSF Revenue Unity Coalition Press Conference to announce the next steps in your campaign to win full funding & better leadership for your college. You made this happen so come celebrate! San Francisco Supervisors Gordon Mar, Myrna Melgar, and members of the CCSF Revenue Unity Coalition will be hosting today’s event.

For a live stream of today: https://www.facebook.com/SFWERCS/live_videos/

You did it! Hundreds of you had thousands of conversations over the past four weeks, with fellow parents at your child’s daycare center, nursing colleagues on your UCSF shift, and friends, family, and community members throughout the city at parks, farmers markets, and Pride.

You now have officially gathered the signatures you needed to bring this historic CCSF funding measure (#SFWERCS) to voters in November. RSVP now to celebrate your success at City Hall on Monday. You have surpassed your faculty goal of gathering 5,000 signatures, with 5,334 signatures and counting. To faculty with outstanding signatures, turn them in! The more you have to announce at your City Hall Press Conference on Monday the better.

And join your CCSF community this Monday at 12pm on the Polk street steps of City Hall for a CCSF Revenue Unity Coalition Press Conference to announce the next steps in your campaign to win full funding & better leadership for your college. You made this happen so come celebrate! San Francisco Supervisors Gordon Mar, Myrna Melgar, and members of the CCSF Revenue Unity Coalition will be hosting Monday’s event.

RSVP now and encourage your colleagues & your whole CCSF community to join you: https://bit.ly/SFWERCS-PRESS