Kick off Success for San Francisco Workforce Education Reinvestment in Community Success Act (SF WERCS)!

Thanks to all who came out on Saturday to help launch our signature gathering campaign!  We had more than 100 people roll through and more than 60 volunteers taking nearly 200 petitions into the streets!  If you haven’t signed up for a volunteer shift it is not too late!  Please use this link (https://bit.ly/ccsfREVENUE) to RSVP for an upcoming shift.  The groundwork has been laid and our momentum is building, but we can’t make this a reality without your support!  Come out and help us make the dream of a fully funded City College a reality for our students!  

Received your packet in the mail and not quite ready to hit the streets? Watch this video and get your questions on signature gathering answered. Or join half-hour Zoom training this Wednesday @ 5:30 or Sunday @ 5pm. RSVP here: https://bit.ly/training4WERCS Either way, get out there, invite voters to invest in City College , and have fun! 

​SF WERCS FACTSHEET​

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Dear AFT Members,

Yesterday, June 8, your bargaining team attempted to negotiate with the district over the impacts of the recent devastating layoffs. Lead negotiator, Alayna Fredricks, began with this statement (click here to read in full).

Your bargaining team worked together to create proposals on severance pay, health benefits, educational benefits, access to district resources, reappointment/recall rights, over-payments & load balance, and retirement.

The district team came unprepared to bargain over any of these issues. In fact, their chief negotiator, Clara Starr appears to have little to no authority to negotiate or hold her team accountable. For example, VC of finance John al-Amin failed to provide basic financial information in advance of the meeting and couldn’t provide or review anything during the meeting because he was busy driving during high-stakes labor negotiations.

Since David Martin arrived at the college, labor relations have completely deteriorated. The Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) recently upheld AFT’s Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) claim alleging bad faith negotiations over salary restoration. Despite this, the District yesterday continued its pattern of bad faith bargaining. The District appears to be taking no corrective action and their behavior yesterday is cause for another Unfair Labor Practice.

The District would not concretely commit to respond to our proposals and outstanding Requests for Information (RFIs), including data on how much the district is saving due to the layoffs. They claim to need over three weeks to produce basic payroll data on the savings produced by layoffs–a clear signal that the decision to drastically downsize our college was not mandated by budgetary concerns.

We call on the district to bargain in good faith. We call on the trustees, who are David Martin’s employer (not the other way around) to reverse the layoffs and preserve the promise of accessible higher education in San Francisco.

Please join us for our next confirmed session on Wednesday, June 15, at 3pm, and our tentative session on Monday, June 13, at 3:30pm . Will their charade continue? Come see for yourselves.

Upcoming Layoffs Impacts Open Bargaining Dates:

Tentative date: Monday, June 13, 3:30 pm
Definite date: Wednesday, June 15, 3:00 pm

Register for either session in advance:   https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUlcOGvrTIoE9QQXg30yz7wzJ52rVy7Z1zm

You only need to register once for any summer bargaining session!

​Signature Gathering Kick-off Dolores Park, Saturday, June 11th @ 11AM 

New AFT 2121 President Mary Bravewoman invites you, San Francisco voters and friends of City College, to join her, the Revenue Unity Coalition, and AFT 2121 mascot Dolly dog this Saturday, 6/11, at Dolores Park at 11AM for your signature gathering kick-off!  

We’ve having a ton of fun talking to voters at amazing locations around the City since Thursday and there are plenty of volunteer shifts to join. Pick your favorite area of the City, talk to some nice folks, and help us secure the future of affordable, quality education in San Francisco!  Sign up now to start talking to voters about City College, & encourage all of your colleagues, friends, families, & peers to join you! RSVP: https://bit.ly/ccsfREVENUE

Signature gathering runs till July 10. Shifts are generally 4pm-8pm on the weekdays and 10am-1pm & 1-4pm on the weekends. Each shift will begin with a short training, and focus on a strategic location from parks to groceries stores to Sunday streets.​

​Open Bargaining scheduled for Wednesday 6/8 @ 3:00 p.m.

Your Bargaining Team is back at the table to negotiate over the impacts of the devastating layoffs that the Board of Trustees approved on May 6. 

We will be meeting with the District on Wednesday, June 8, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.

Please plan to attend this session to show the administration that AFT members are here to support our colleagues and are paying attention. The chancellor chose to make severe departmental cuts after the last day of the semester. But we’re not sleeping over the summer – we’re fighting back! 

All AFT members are encouraged to register in advance to attend this open bargaining session: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUlcOGvrTIoE9QQXg30yz7wzJ52rVy7Z1zm 

Facing the loss of employer provided benefits is hugely stressful. Chancellor Martin has chosen to add this burden to the hundreds of faculty members grappling with the ramifications of losing their jobs. Like so many of Chancellor Martin’s decisions, this one is unconscionable and callous.

But it shouldn’t mean that you lose medical insurance entirely–join your colleagues Tuesday, June 7, 9-10am on this zoom to learn about your healthcare options moving forward.

What’s the difference between Cobra and Covered California? How do I decide, and what are the deadlines? Let’s get together to answer these questions and make sure you have the information you need to take action and sign up for continuation of coverage.

So much about health insurance depends on your individual situation and needs, but we’ll discuss how to tackle learning enough about the various options to make an informed decision and ensure that you don’t have a lapse in medical coverage.

​Adding insult to injury: Brace for increased funding amidst Martin’s devastating second round of cuts to the fall schedule 

State Investments: The Governors May Revise proposes substantial investments in the California Community College System. While this is not yet the final budget, it indicates a clear intent to substantially support colleges with both ongoing and one-time funds. These numbers are subject to the budget process and may change, but AFT estimates that at least 33 million in one time funding will be allocated to CCSF, over 10 million of which will be discretionary (i.e. a blank check). Additionally, the COLA has been increased to 6.56% resulting in a total of over 9 million dollars in ongoing unrestricted funding. Further, the state proposes to eliminate the “fiscal cliff” by converting the hold harmless provision into a permanent funding floor. With tens of millions in new state revenue, there is simply no budget rationale for layoffs that will devastate the schedule and programs. 

A tale of two budgets:  AFT has long held that this year’s budget contains inverted priorities and a slew of errant projections. Budget priorities are within the District’s power to manipulate, but errant projections are matters of fact that are clarified over time. And when the time comes for Trustees to face the facts behind the District’s errant projections, they will have a responsibility to act. AFT has prepared this video and factsheet for trustees– what will Trustees do in the face of a funding reality that disputes the devastating actions they have just sanctioned? 

In the face of corrected projections, rebounding local funding and historic state investments, Martin refuses to change course to protect students and programs. He has spent too much of his political capital to permanently eliminate Full Time faculty positions. Will trustees sink their political capital into blindly supporting this Chancellor’s fatal plan? 

​CCSF administration has just reaffirmed their intentions: the dismantling of our college. In an email sent today, David Martin explains to chairs that he is going to cut their department budgets to finalize the layoffs of most of the 38 FT faculty who received pink slips and the 136 part-timers in their departments. From Computer Networking, ESL, & English, to Floristry, Counseling & so much more, essential CCSF programs are under attack. 

The planned budget, the one the Board of Trustees voted for, was given to departments back in February. It included awful cuts. But still included enough FTEF to re-assign most of the pink-slipped full-timers and many of the part-timers. Administration could honor that. But now they have stated their intention to cut the budget even beyond what the BOT approved. AFT 2121 President Malaika Finkelstein sent an open letter to the Board of Trustees today to challenge this latest action to slash City College. 

Normally, there’s a budget and the departments assign faculty within that budget to serve our students. But David Martin has turned it upside down. He’s defined how many faculty he wants and he’s shrinking the budget to meet it. This demonstrates no thought for our students at all and is unconscionable. 

It’s hugely problematic that they would wait until after students have begun enrolling to announce this. It has been clearly established that they can not reappoint full-timers as part-timers. However, the BOT was assured that these cuts would not eliminate programs, since faculty would be reassigned. And this is one of the justifications given by the BOT for why they voted for layoffs, claiming they had been told no departments or programs would be destroyed. 

It’s time for honesty. These layoffs will throw students out of school and close entire departments. Board members, if you want City College to continue to serve students, you can push back against this. You can still demand that the budget you approved be implemented. You can show up for public education. If you can’t find a way to do that, you are welcome to step aside. 

​What comes next? 

Sign up & share with your students: Win revenue for our College:

The current layoffs & cuts are unnecessary and short-sighted. A stable and thriving CCSF needs local investment to meet the long-term educational demands of San Franciscans. Discredited agencies on the State level–the ACCJC and FCMAT–clearly want to shrink City College, and CCSF’s current leaders seem content to follow along. Now is the time to amplify your fight to combat this trend and bring more revenue to CCSF to support faculty, students, and staff.

Your union has been working with the CCSF Revenue Unity Coalition, a historic coalition of CCSF labor, student, & community groups, to launch a campaign to ask voters to pass the San Francisco Workforce Education Reinvestment in Community Success Act (SF WERCS), a progressively applied parcel tax, this November.

•  See a summary of the measure here.
  
  

• Sign up now to start talking to voters about City College, & encourage all of your colleagues, friends, families, & peers to join you!
  
  RSVP:https://bit.ly/ccsfREVENUE
  
  Signature gathering shifts will be 10am-1pm & 1-4pm weekends and 4-8pm weekdays beginning June 2. Each shift will begin with a short training, and focus on a strategic location from parks to groceries stores to Sunday streets. 

• Come out to the SF WERC Launch Party at Dolores Park from 11-2pm, Saturday, June 11. 

To get this measure on the ballot, you need 14,000 SF voters to sign a petition endorsing it by July 11. Join us in taking action to make this real.