( Illustration by CCSF student Jon E. Greene)

Just like last year, CCSF Chancellor David Martin will be asking CCSF trustees to downsize our college and close classroom doors to tens of thousands of students. Chancellor Martin plans to issue 50 layoff notices for full-time faculty, and all part-time faculty in targeted departments would be denied assignments as well. This could not come at a worse time. The college has already lost 30% of its classes in the last two years and can no longer meet the enrollment demand in San Francisco. The Chancellor’s plan will close hundreds of fully enrolled classes and leave CCSF faculty members without work. But unlike last year, the college is not in financial desperation. We have shown that our budget DOES NOT mandate layoffs.

When we asked the Chancellor why he intends to issue these layoffs, his answers were both revealing and disturbing. The reasons that he gave had only to do with pleasing fiscal managers and administrative agencies that have little to no concern for meeting the public education needs of our community. At no time did he express any concern about the impacts of layoffs on students, faculty, and classified staff or what these cuts would mean for the future of the college and our mission to educate our community. Make no mistake about it, the policies that are foremost in his mind will devastate our students, our faculty, our staff, and our CCSF community.

David Martin will ask the CCSF trustees to vote on this layoff plan by the end of this month. But the people of San Francisco have elected the trustees to defend public education. We need to hold our Trustees and Chancellor accountable. Here are two ways to take action right now:

1. Share the pressure campaign on Facebook and Twitter. If trustees don’t live up to their responsibilities, the voters will know what to do this November when four seats come up for election.

2. AFT 2121 & SEIU 1021 members stand together for our students and our college in the latest #HeartbeatofCCSF. Watch, Like, & Share on Twitter, Instagram, & Facebook. Text by the one and only Tehmina Khan, & video production by CCSF students and the AFT 2121 Communications Team.

Even if the board initially goes along with this downsizing plan, there’s still time to stop them from finalizing it before the May 15 deadline. Because the CCSF community worked together to fight back the last time CCSF faced a threat like this, we are in a better position than last year to push back. We all need to step up to save City College, a majority student of color bedrock of San Francisco. The key to our success will be solidarity among faculty, staff, students, community, and labor allies. Join us by standing together against class cuts and layoffs!

Time to Show You’re Strike Ready

Chancellor Martin’s email yesterday was a slap in the face. See the following chart for the full impact of his proposed layoffs, which would be an enormous blow to our students and our programs. After last year’s layoff threat and the concessions you took to defend our students and college, you deserve so much better. Many of us are hurting right now, and with good reason. But remember: we have the power to stop the downsizing of our college and public education when we stand together.

You have 3 months to fight back and move at least 4 Trustees to reject David Martin’s layoff proposal before the May 15 deadline.

What’s your next step? To get strike ready. It’s time to show Chancellor Martin’s bosses, the CCSF Trustees, that you as a faculty stand united behind the fight for your jobs, your students, and your college. That means demonstrating you have a supermajority of colleagues ready to act in unison. Your Photo Petition last semester had 50% faculty participation. It’s time to raise that to 70-80% to show that you have the power necessary to defend your college.

Take action right now:

• Sign the No Layoffs Valentine’s Card to the Trustees: https://sites.google.com/view/generalfaculty/home

• Reply ‘yes’ to this email to RSVP for Phone Banking your colleagues tmrw Friday, 4-6pm, on Zoom, & help ensure everyone is signed on to your No Layoffs Card. Here’s the Zoom link for the Phone Bank.

Your union will be printing one card per faculty signature and delivering all of them en masse to the Trustees on Feb 14. Reply to this email if you’re interested in joining for the delivery, and help make the delivery a success by signing your No Layoffs card and encouraging all of your colleagues to do the same!

FSA Update

CCSF administration has posted an updated FSA list for full-time faculty. It is still a work in progress, but it does include some updates since last Spring. You can download the new list (dated 2/2/22) and apply for additional FSAs on the Employee Services Website. The deadline to apply is February 15th.

More information about FSAs and Seniority for FT faculty here.

Open COVID Impacts Bargaining

COVID Impacts Bargaining sessions are scheduled for Thurs 2/3 and Fri 2/10 from 3-5 pm. All members are welcome to participate in open bargaining.

Register in advance for these meetings:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYrdO2hqjIqHtS6Uj8du2mnz-soveCfAdL8

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Chancellor plans to DOWNSIZE CCSF

Chancellor David Martin has informed your union that he will be asking the trustees to downsize our college. See a longer video update on this news here. Chancellor Martin is putting forward a plan to issue 50 layoff notices for FT faculty. We do not know yet which departments he’s targeting.

He intends to name full-time faculty for layoff, like last year. Almost all part-time faculty in the targeted departments would need to be fired in order for the college to lay off the full-timers. This would mean deep cuts that would devastate our college. But unlike last year, the college is not in financial desperation. We have shown that our budget DOES NOT mandate layoffs.

David Martin will ask the trustees to vote on this layoff plan by the end of this month. But the people of San Francisco have elected them to defend public education. We need to hold our Trustees and Chancellor accountable. Here are two ways to take action right now–these actions are part of a series of escalating tactics in your union’s campaign plan to stand up for our jobs, our students, and our college.

1. Sign the Valentine’s Day Petition to Trustees. Tell them: Don’t break the heart of CCSF, say no to layoffs, stand up for students, and support full funding of City College. We will hand-deliver the cards to the Trustees on Valentine’s Day.

2. Share the pressure campaign on Facebook and Twitter. If trustees don’t live up to their responsibilities, the voters will know what to do this November when four seats come up for election.

Even if the board initially goes along with this downsizing plan, there’s still time to stop them from finalizing it before the May 15 deadline. See our FAQ page for more information about the process. Because of our organizing last semester, we are in a better position than last year to push back. We have an engaged and increasingly powerful faculty union that is informed, educated, and committed to fighting not only for jobs, but also for departments, programs, and our students. The key to our success will be solidarity among faculty, staff, students, community, and labor allies. Join us by standing together against layoffs!

FSA applications for FT Faculty due Feb 15th

It looks like David Martin intends to issue March 15th layoff notices to FT faculty. As we reported previously, there is no budgetary need to do so. But he seems intent on downsizing.

Here are three ways you can prepare and participate in your union’s plan to win. These are just the first steps in an escalating series of actions needed to win:

1. Apply for additional FSAs on the CCSF Employee Services website (more on this below)​

2. Contact your precinct rep to add your name to a Valentines ‘No Layoffs/Don’t Break the Heartbeat of City College’ Card to the Trustees

3. Sign up now to join the contingent who will deliver these cards to the Trustees by replying ‘yes’ to this email

Tenured and tenure-track faculty work in defined “service areas”. This is the legal structure for layoffs, intended to make the process as fair as possible and avoid favoritism. It is in your interest to apply for multiple FSAs – being qualified in more areas can protect you.

But the District hasn’t made it easy. They have failed to post an updated list of which FSAs faculty have currently, which makes it hard to figure out which additional FSAs you may need. The best resource we currently have is last year’s FSA list. It does not reflect the FSAs faculty applied for last year, or the work the college has done to update the requirements for FSAs to match the current state definitions.

FSA applications are due by Feb 15th. Time is running out. In the absence of real information, we advise FT faculty to simply apply for every FSA you think you can. You can assume CCSF already knows you have the FSA for your current and recent assignments, but you could be qualified for other FSAs as well. The state’s Minimum Qualifications page has a link to the most current Handbook with the disciplines listed. Take a look and see where you’re qualified.

— Learn more about FSAs and Seniority here.

Action alert: Medical coverage for PT faculty

CFT is coordinating a state-wide campaign to win affordable, quality healthcare for adjunct faculty. And it’s working. As a result of letters from over 1,400 members, Governor Newsom allocated $200 million in his January 10 state budget proposal to fund healthcare for part-time faculty on an ongoing basis.

We have to keep up the momentum to ensure the funds remain in the state budget, and to improve the system so faculty actually get coverage. Among other things, CFT is advocating something CCSF faculty have been talking about for many years – a system that would pool our hours between colleges so that faculty who work at multiple schools could be eligible for benefits. This is especially timely now that the California legislature has once again failed to move forward with a single-payer system.

Right now, we asking members to speak up in two ways:

1. Send a letter to key legislators about this issue, and share the link. This is different from last month’s letter: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-the-state-legislature-quality-affordable-healthcare-for-all-part-time-faculty
   

2. Attend a (virtual) budget hearing in the state legislature and speak for one minute about why part-time faculty need healthcare: 2/14 (time TBD), and 2/16 at 9AM

–CFT will help you develop your testimony. They are holding three trainings the week prior (2/8 @ 4PM, 2/9 @ 4PM, or 2/11 @ 1PM)

–RSVP at: https://bit.ly/pthealthcarehearing

Join us in taking action to fund faculty healthcare!

Tell USF President Fitzgerald and Provost Oparah to send their team back to the table with part-time faculty!

The University of San Francisco’s Part Time Faculty Association needs your help.

After months of stonewalling, the USF administration has walked away from negotiations, forcing USF part-time faculty to file an Unfair Labor Practices claim with the National Labor Relations Board.

PTFA has been in contract negotiations with the USF administration since July 2021. Management began by demanding $600,000 in salary and benefit reductions, ostensibly because of financial damage USF suffered in the pandemic.

In fact, as they have known for months, USF was actually expecting an operating surplus of more than $26 million in 2021. The administration only took their demand for give-backs off the table two days before President Paul Fitzgerald announced that many USF employees — including all of upper management — would be receiving 5% salary bonuses.

Because USF part-time faculty 2019 collective bargaining agreement provided for (much smaller) salary increases, PTFA members did not receive these one-time payments. And management continues to reject their extremely modest proposal for a 2% salary increase per year over the next two years. With inflation running above 7% per year, their proposed pay freeze is really an even larger pay cut for the more than 600 people who teach close to half the classes at USF.

Please send a message to President Paul Fitzgerald and Provost Chinyere Oparah!

Ask them to do the right thing for part-time faculty at USF. Ask them to send their team back to the table and negotiate a fair contract!

Click here to take action!

AFT 2121 met with Chancellor David Martin on January 19, 2022. We asked him why he was considering issuing March 15 layoff letters. His answers were both revealing and disturbing. The reasons that he gave had only to do with pleasing fiscal managers and administrative agencies that have little to no concern for meeting the public education needs of our community.

The Chancellor talked about the ACCJC having CCSF on its “growing concern” list. He talked about implementing recommendations in the FCMAT report. At no time did he express any concern about the impacts of layoffs on students, faculty, and classified staff, or what these cuts would mean for the future of the college and our mission to educate our community. Make no mistake about it, the policies that are foremost in his mind will devastate our faculty, our staff, our students, and our community.

What made the discussion even more disturbing was that our own AFT 2121 analysis of the budget for the coming year makes it crystal clear that these policies are both unnecessary and counterproductive.

There is enough money for the district to do two things:

–One, restore all salaries to what they were before our concessionary agreement of last year,

–Two, have a balanced budget without any March 15 letters, layoffs, or cuts.

We need all hands on deck to take action if we are going to stop these draconian austerity measures.

1. Contact your precinct rep first thing Monday morning to add your name to a Valentines ‘No Layoffs/Don’t Break the Heartbeat of City College’ Card to the Trustees

2. Sign up now to join the contingent who will deliver these cards to the Trustees by replying ‘yes’ to this email

3. Next Tuesday, Jan 25 from 3-5pm, participate in your Delegate Assembly (link here) to discuss next steps in this fight

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