In Unity,

Malaika Finkelstein
President, AFT 2121

Standing up for Aeronautics and Evans faculty

Background
The Aircraft Maintenance program has lost its lease at SFO and is scheduled to vacate the location by December 31, 2020. The district has proposed moving the program to the Evans campus, which is problematic for several reasons.

First, the campus is located in a mixed-use neighborhood made up of primarily Black, Latino, and Asian families, and has the largest concentration of children in the city. Moving the program into the area brings with it many potential health concerns such as lead pollution from jet fuel, excessive noise from riveting, and the running of jet engines. This is not an industrial neighborhood. 

Second, there is not enough space at the Evans location to properly house the aeronautics program and maintain the existing programs, such as Automotive, Motorcycle Repair, Welding, and City Build. These programs, all of which serve residents from the Bayview-Hunters Point area, and lead to well-paying jobs for their graduates, are at risk of being squeezed out if this move goes forward as currently planned. Faculty and students in all of the impacted programs are against this move. The Aircraft Maintenance program needs to be located at the airport.

Current status
Though the Aircraft Maintenance program has been on hold due in part to the COVID-19 crisis and restrictions on in-person instruction, faculty, and students have been working with AFT 2121 to push back on the move and encourage the district to find a new airport location for the program. These efforts have won the program a temporary reprieve. Late last week the district sent a letter announcing plans to postpone moving the Aircraft Maintenance program to the Evans campus. It is not clear how long this deferment will last, but it is only a temporary postponement. The district cited the need to complete environmental impacts reports, and FAA approval before finalizing the move. Current plans are to vacate the SFO site by 12/31/20 and to store the program’s equipment and materials until all logistics of the move can be completed.  

Next steps
We see this pause as an opportunity to find an alternate airport location for the program. Faculty have located potential sites at SFO which could house the program, but we need the administration to work with airport officials to make this a priority.

If you have not done so, please sign the petition urging the CCSF administration to work with officials at SFO to find a location for the program at the airport. 

You can also attend the community forums to give input directly to the Chancellor, VC Boegel, and Dean Bynum. The next forum is Wednesday, November 18^th from 4:30-5:30 PM. You can access the meeting here: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/91417320080

Post-election celebration and info session

 

 

Join us for a post-election mobilization celebration Happy Hour on Tuesday, November 24, 4-6 PM. Although some uncertainty still lingers, it’s important to toast all of our volunteers who worked on phone and text banks, literature distribution, sign posting, and other volunteer work to get out the vote around the city, state and nation!

Please RSVP!

We will:

—Celebrate you and your many hours of work!

—Discuss wins and losses.

—Learn about what the budget climate means for us, and next steps in organizing.

—Find out about ways to plug into the Georgia Senate vote mobilizations.

—Announce raffle prize winners!

 

Please RSVP!

(11/17) Delegate Assembly

Our COPE meeting at 1:30 has been cancelled. Agenda and relevant documents:

• Agenda
• Mandated Holidays
• Academic Calendar
• Current Policy: AFT 2121 Bargaining Team
• (Draft) NEW PROPOSED POLICY: AFT 2121 Bargaining Team
• *(Not yet approved) August DA minutes
• *(Not yet approved) September DA minutes

To attend, follow this link from your computer or smartphone: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87563696693?pwd=UHllaFJHYWxCNFBNYndZbEpzbmVxdz09OR call 1-669-900-6833 then follow the prompts to enter the meeting ID #875 6369 6693 and password: 346656.

(11/18) Poetry For Healing

Join our own poet & educator, Tehmina Kahn, for a time of poetry reading and sharing for healing and love. Register here to receive the zoom link.

Push to defend democracy in Georgia

Voters have until December 7, 2020, to register to vote for this election, so efforts will focus on registration through that date and then shift to voter turnout once the registration deadline has passed. These runoff elections are critical because winning them would give Democrats and Republicans 50 votes each in the U.S. Senate. In the case of a tie, the tie breaking vote is cast by the Vice President, in this case our new VP Kamala Harris.  

Volunteer Opportunities

AFT National is not planning travel to Georgia at this time due both to the COVID-19 pandemic and because it is important to let organizations and volunteers already on the ground take the lead in these elections. AFT is, however, asking us to sign up for phone banks and text banks to register voters, to encourage them to request mail ballots, and to remind them to vote. You can sign up for those phone and text banks here: https://www.aftvotes.org/volunteer-GA

Contributions to Candidates and Organizations

Individuals, of course, are welcome to contribute, and if you or your members are interested in making a personal contribution, You can do that through Act Blue. Any individual can contribute to both Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock through that platform. We recommend the following list of Georgia based organizations that are supporting voter registration work and fighting voter suppression in Georgia.  

• Fair Fight — Founded by former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams in 2018, Fair Fight promotes fair elections in Georgia and around the country, encourages voter participation in elections, and educates voters about elections and their voting rights.

• The New Georgia Project — The New Georgia Project is a nonpartisan effort to register and civically engage Georgians.

• Georgia Equality — Georgia Equality’s mission is to advance fairness, safety and opportunity for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities and their allies throughout the state. To support their voter registration and education efforts, you should contribute to the “Equality Foundation of Georgia” arm of their organization, which you will find at the link above.

• Georgia Shift — Georgia Shift gives marginalized young people a seat at the table through electoral action and hands-on education. They will be running a program focused on turning out and engaging young people of color.

AFT 2121 is hiring

In preparation for our upcoming contract campaign AFT 2121 is hiring. View and share the job posting.

CCSF’s proposed multi-year budget

We know there is much anxiety and uncertainty around the proposed multi-year budget and the impacts it will have on faculty and students. We are feeling it too!  How could we not when the messaging from the district is that this is a done deal?

At the 11th hour, on the weekend before the election of our lifetime the Chancellor sent a form to our faculty, asking for feedback on a draft budget that slashes faculty pay by almost $18 million! This was not a good faith effort to address the needs of our students and college. It is a public relations ploy designed to create fear, and it is an attempt to sidestep AFT 2121 in negotiations.

Despite the dire circumstances projected by the district, we do not have a lot of concrete information. The budget reality in the next few years simply has too many uncertainties to have a realistic conversation now. Among the district’s assumptions are that revenue and enrollment will remain flat. But those things could change; we have changed them before!

San Franciscans need their community college to be consistent and reliable, now more than ever. CCSF will play a vital role in rebuilding our economy and reinvigorating our communities by providing access to education and training. Will our City College leaders, and the CCSF Board of Trustees, especially the new board members, stand up and realize they can’t cut their way out of this problem? If they do, we can work together to support a fully funded community college that has always been supported by the San Francisco community and voters election after election.

Our current contract is valid through June 2021, and the multi-year budget that the district is bringing before the board this Thursday is for the academic years 21-22 and beyond. This document is telling us how dismal the situation is, but it is not a foregone conclusion, despite what the district wants us to think.  

The proposed schedule reductions for the academic year 21-22, of 600 classes from the current levels is not something the district is obligated to negotiate over, but that does not mean we cannot and will not push back. Additionally, any reductions in salary and/or changes in contractual obligations must be negotiated with our union. The messaging from the district has not been clear on this point.

We know the administration wants us to believe their plan is the only path forward, but that is simply false. Our contract depends on us! We’ll be discussing negotiation strategy at the next delegate assembly meeting Tuesday, November 17th at 3 PM, please join us!

To attend, follow this link from your computer or smartphone: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87563696693?pwd=UHllaFJHYWxCNFBNYndZbEpzbmVxdz09 OR call 1-669-900-6833 then follow the prompts to enter the meeting ID #875 6369 6693 and password: 346656.

Advocate for Equity at CCSF: Speak in Support of Non-credit ESL at Thursday’s BOT

CCSF Noncredit faculty are organizing to push back against the lack of support for Non-credit programs, and in particular, ESL, in the most recent draft of the Multi-Year Budget and Enrollment (MYBE) plan.

What Noncredit ESL are fighting against is a microcosm of what’s happening college wide. It appears that the college plans to balance its budget, in part, by cutting 600 sections college-wide and in particular, argues a reduction in need for noncredit ESL. This downcast budget and enrollment “”plan”” lacks vision in academic and programmatic innovation and growth that address the needs of the aging population, thousands of residents for whom English is not their native language, and the half of San Francisco residents who are educated professionals seeking extra higher education for a multitude of reasons personal and professional.

Not only is this contrary to the college’s own Mission Statement which promises educational programs and services for the pursuit of degrees, career advancement, and life-long learners, it is fiscally short-sighted; our Non-credit ESL program is a net INCOME generator for the college. When we get out of hold harmless and teeter on the fiscal cliff in 2024/2025, we will need this program’s revenue. We should be using hold harmless money to build, not cut right now.

We are calling for speakers to speak in support of a resolution ESL faculty are drafting now and will deliver to board members, including members elect, early Thursday. We resolve that CCSF invest in robust marketing and outreach to San Francisco residents in learner-friendly English and in multiple languages to ensure the equity that our Mission Statement promises to our most vulnerable populations – including people of color, immigrants, low-income residents, the under-housed, the disabled, and the technologically disadvantaged. Many of our students are not enrolled in our classes as they once were because they are being isolated due to the digital divide.

• Don’t leave Non-credit and ESL out of the budget plan!
• Non-credit ESL is an economic engine for our college!
• CCSF has consistently failed to do the outreach needed to connect community members to programs that are useful to them and fiscally productive to the college!
• The fiscal cliff is a fact. Hold harmless will end and adequate planning for increasing enrollment in Non-credit ESL will help fund other portions of the college during a tough financial transition!

FOR STUDENTS:
Students! Please give public comment and tell the board that you are important! Advocate for equity at CCSF among our immigrant and ESL students who are people of color, learning ways to integrate into the culture in this country, up-skilling and retraining to enter the workforce, transferring to credit and degree programs, and being part of the community. Many credit students are transfer students from Non-credit, or they grew up with parents who attended ESL classes. All student voices are powerful, even if you give it in your native language. If you bring an interpreter, include that information in your public comment request email, and you will get more time to speak.