Dear Faculty,
With multiple wildfires blazing around the Bay Area, we want to make sure we all stay safe. If you have been evacuated or are experiencing other emergencies related to the fires you can contact our local CFT Representative Ed Wang at ewang@cft.org or Angelica Vargas at California Federation of Teachers at avargas@cft.org. CFT has programs that can help with emergency resources.
In safety and solidarity,
AFT 2121
If we want to have a City College of San Francisco that our students and communities deserve – a true community college, not a narrower junior college – then we will need the resources to make it happen. AFT 2121 has made fighting for new funding for CCSF a top priority.
Please join our union in working to towards three solutions:
Establishing the Workforce Education Recovery Fund (WERF)
Passing Schools and Communities First (Prop 15)
Taxing the wealthy to fund education in California (AB 1253 & AB 2088)
WERF
During the last year, we have given our all working to establish the Workforce Education & Recovery Fund. Unfortunately, Mayor Breed did not include WERF in her initial budget proposal. But WERF could still be funded through the Board of Supervisors’ revised budget proposal.
In our continued fight to try and get WERF established this year, we have had to lower our ask, in solidarity with all our labor and community partners who also need funding during the pandemic. As of now, we are asking SF Supervisors to establish WERF as a two-year pilot program that would provide $15 million total for fiscal years 20-21 & 21-22. This is a big compromise. But it’s important to get something in the budget this year. The budget’s add-back process has less funds available than the Mayor’s initial budget proposal.
To make sure the Supervisors include WERF in their budget proposal, please join us for Public Comment Day on Monday 24th starting at 10am: https://forms.gle/cpgKZZwmvwFqa43x6
Prop 15
Before the pandemic, we collected petitions for Schools and Communities First. With AFT 2121 members working together our union collected nearly twice our original goal, one of the highest among community college locals. We helped place it on the statewide ballot and, and it’s now called Prop 15. If passed in November it would close property tax loopholes for huge corporations and bring in $12 billion yearly our schools and communities. It would conservatively provide $20 million for CCSF per year in stable, ongoing funds.
Please sign up for Prop 15 events to help us win for our communities!
Wealth Taxes
During this pandemic, while millions of workers are laid off, frontline workers risk their lives, and teachers and students struggle, billionaires have profited. The numbers are disturbing. A recent study by the Institute for Policy Studies showed that just the top 12 billionaires alone, 5 who live in California, made a staggering $182 billion, a 22% increase from the beginning of the year! This disparity in the midst of the pandemic can not be allowed to continue.
AFT 2121 and our statewide affiliate, CFT, are working to pass two statewide wealth taxes AB 2088, and AB 1253. This summer AFT 2121 members and our elected leaders took action by joining Tax the Billionaires actions and giving public comment to the state legislature in supporting the creation of new wealth taxes to fund our schools.
Take action: Please sign this petition today – Say YES to taxing billionaires to fund our schools.
How did we get here?
California schools and community colleges have been chronically underfunded since 1978 with the passing of Prop 13. Despite our reputation as a progressive blue state, California’s funding levels are more like red states. We rank 50th among states in counselors and librarians in per pupil spending and 41st in overall spending per pupil in K-12.
Although we have greater access to community colleges because of lower tuition in California, our funding levels for community colleges are low. Here in San Francisco, with our astronomical housing costs, the funding we do get doesn’t go as far.
Schools and colleges are treading water when it comes to public funding. But the moment of reckoning is not far in the future. California is estimated to have a whopping $54 billion deficit. For this year K-12 and community colleges did not get their budgets slashed. Instead, the state gave “deferrals”. “Deferral” simply means California gave the K-12 and community college districts an IOU as a form of collateral to go to the banks to borrow money to maintain educational quality and funding. Soon we will find out how bad the economic fallout is when we see what the actual revenues are.
We will continue to work in coalition with CFA, CFT, SEIU and other community allies to make sure that the state and local budgets are not balanced on the backs of our schools, teachers, students and communities.
Welcome to Fall semester 2020! We started with a bang – a giant ConferZoom and registration meltdown that has kicked students out of school.
The system failed us. Many students have been blocked from registering for the college, signing up for classes, and attending their online classes even when they are signed up. We’ll never know how many students we lost this week. But we’re calling on the CCSF administration to act now to stop the damage. We need:
— More help for faculty and students navigating these problems.
— More time for classes to run.
— A lower class size minimum.
— Print schedules and information about how to register made available.
— Classes and programs to be “held harmless” in terms of enrollment management.
— Communication! Tell us where to refer our students and where to report problems.
This video showcases some of the stories we’ve heard this week:
Add your voice! Please fill out our new tech problems form. It will automatically report your story to Chancellor Vurdien and to AFT.
Please plan to attend our upcoming DA and COPE meetings.
You can read questionnaires and issue summaries we’ve received in 2020 by entering the password COPE on the COPE page of our AFT 2121 website. To ensure that all members can cast a vote, we will send out an online ballot after each meeting. The ballots will be open for 48 hours following the COPE meetings.
As San Francisco starts the new school year, all school bus drivers for the San Francisco Unified School District have been given layoff notices, effective Aug. 31. These layoffs are affecting 260 workers and sending them into chaos trying to scramble for healthcare coverage. First Student is worth $3.5 BILLION in North America. They can afford to keep people on their healthcare during this crisis.
Please join our SFUSD School Bus Drivers for a rally protesting these layoffs on Thursday, August 20th at 4:30 PM at SF City Hall. You can read SMART 1741’s full statement below.
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Early last week, we signed significant agreements with the District on class size minimums and medical insurance. Then we met on Thursday evening to work out a plan for leaves. We agreed to a plan for the whole year for faculty who have in-person assignments, and a plan for Fall only for those working remotely.
These agreements, and a new federal law called the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act, give faculty some options for taking leave. These agreements allow for expanded options for both paid and unpaid leave for faculty who:
More details about these agreements are in our video bargaining update, and on our COVID-19 Impacts Bargaining page.
With this agreement, we hope faculty will be positioned to take care of themselves, their families, and their communities, with the confidence that jobs and assignments will be there upon our return.
Coming up:
Tuesday, 8/25: COPE meeting (1:30-3pm ) and Delegate Assembly (3-5pm).
More info soon: Precinct rep election this semester!
Last week we temporarily stopped the class cuts and compel the district to come to the negotiating table. This afternoon, just four days before classes start, we reached an agreement.
Class Size and Enrollment
Medical Benefits
Class cuts can mean that faculty who work part-time lose their medical benefits during a global pandemic. Our agreement with the District:
Fine print: If you’re completely laid off, you’ll need to arrange to pay the employee portion of the premium – whatever they would normally deduct from your paycheck. If you’re in Kaiser employee only, there’s no cost. But if you had a cost, HR will contact you about how to arrange the payment. We don’t know how they’ll arrange it.
Thank you to everyone who showed up, wrote letters, and helped keep the pressure on! This agreement couldn’t have happened without you.
What’s next?
Who: AFT 2121 faculty, students, and community leadersWhat: Socially Distant Press Conference and Registration Teach In
Wear: A mask and plan to stay 6ft apart, wear your Union garb or red for education, bring a sign about access to education, wear a mask and plan to stay 6ft apart!
Where: Drive in, walk in, bike in, or tune in. CCSF Ocean Campus, Multi Use Building Parking lot between MUB and the CCSF Bookstore Annex.
When: Thursday, August 13, 11am-12pm
RSVP NOW: Please tell us if you’re walking, driving, or biking in so we can keep this socially distant event safe.
Who: AFT 2121 faculty, students, and community leadersWhat: Socially Distant Press Conference and Registration Teach In
Where: Drive in, walk in, bike in, or tune in. CCSF Ocean Campus, Multi Use Building Parking lot between MUB and the CCSF Bookstore Annex.
When: Thursday, August 13, 11am-12pm
RSVP NOW: Please tell us if you’re walking, driving, or biking in so we can keep this socially distant event safe.
On the day of: Wear your Union garb or wear Red for Education, bring a sign about access to education, wear a mask and plan to stay 6ft apart!
During a global pandemic CCSF students need more stability and support, not less. Access to educational opportunities as students navigate an entirely unprecedented educational system is critical. CCSF is attempting to cut classes this week before students have an opportunity to enroll. AFT is fighting to ensure CCSF provides stability and support to students battling an economic and health crisis.
Students, faculty and community leaders will be speaking out on the Administration’s decision to cut classes whose enrollment is impacted by COVID and the importance of breaking down barriers during this crisis- students need robust class offerings and accessible registration. CCSF must not cut classes when students need them most.
Can’t come to the action?
Please sign on to our open letter to the Chancellor and Trustees calling for classes to be allowed to run in support of our already struggling students. Or help us raise up your stories by sending a short video! Tell us who your students are and how they’re impacted by these cuts. Send it to aft@aft2121.org
Please join us for our AFT 2121 Flex Day meeting this Friday, 8/14 from 2-4:30pm where we will be discussing COVID impact bargaining and sharing what we know about things to expect for the Fall semester.
Our COPE meeting which was scheduled for tomorrow 8/12 at 10am and the items to be voted on have been rescheduled for two new upcoming times.
You can read questionnaires and issue summaries we’ve received in 2020 by entering the password COPE on the COPE page of our AFT 2121 website. To ensure that all members can cast a vote, we will send out an online ballot after each meeting. The ballots will be open for 48 hours following the COPE meetings.
AFT 2121 COPE MEETING 8/24 1:30pm
1. Call to order and welcome
2. Public Banking (California), 20 minutes
3. Revised Social Housing proposal, 20 minutes
4. Member initiated resolution on rescinding an endorsement, 20 mins
5. Contributions to endorsed candidates, 5 minutes
To attend go to https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85472694916?pwd=VzVpTUFNOTR3NWltUHVOeGxkNjJyZz09 OR call 1-669-900-6833 and follow the prompts to enter the Meeting ID: 854 7269 4916 and Password: 324993
AFT 2121 COPE MEETING 8/27 11am
2. District 11 endorsements 45 minutes
3. Contributions to endorsed candidates, 5 minutes
To attend go to https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89692207084?pwd=ZzkyaHk1Y0V6TC85bkNDYkxHNVNvUT09 OR call 1-669-900-6833 and follow the prompts to enter the Meeting ID: 854 7269 4916 and Password: 324993
The leadership of our constituent groups: AFT, SEIU, DCC, Academic Senate, and Classified Senate have joined to begin relationship-building. We met as a group with the Chancellor on August 4th and presented him with a long list of requests for information that will inform future discussions.
Malaika Finkelstein, AFT 2121
Athena Steff, SEIU 1021
Darlene Alioto, DCC
Simon Hanson, Academic Senate
Maria Salazar-Colόn, Classified Senate
Mary Bravewoman, AFT 2121
Karl Gamarra, SEIU 1021
Joe Reyes, DCC
Fanny Law, Academic Senate
Chris Brodie, Classified Senate
See AFT’s full Budget Analysis Here for an understanding of City College’s current and future finances, including the impact of the Hold Harmless fiscal freeze in 2024-25.
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