Standing Together for Education.
Teanna Tillery, the United Educators of San Francisco Vice President for Paraeduators, has been involved with the local for a couple decades, and she wants to do whatever she can to make things better for classified workers.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CFT – A Union of Educators and Classified Professionals
Contact: Matthew Hardy, 510-703-5291
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19 that the Union soldiers landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.
Early in the morning of June 28,1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York City’s Greenwich Village, a place where gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people gathered. Police officers entered the club, roughed up patrons and arrested 13 people, including employees and people violating the state’s gender-appropriate clothing statute.
The month of May was chosen to commemorate the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to the United States on May 7, 1843, during the beginning of the California Gold Rush. It also marks the anniversary of the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869. Most of the workers who laid the tracks that connected the frontier to the rest of the country were Chinese immigrants.
On Saturday, April 24, kids in the Lawndale school district got to pick three free books for preschoolers through 8th graders, on topics ranging from history to biography to science as well as fiction. There were Disney books and chapter books for older kids — such as the 20-book Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney, who has sold more than 300 million copies — more than the number of albums Led Zeppelin has sold.
Across California, educators and classified professionals are already in motion—and building power in real time.
This issue of CFT United brings those stories together: from the surge of May Day organizing, to hard-won contract gains, to getting books into students’ hands and defending our schools. None of this is isolated. It’s connected, deliberate, and growing. The task in front of us is not to wait for momentum—it’s to deepen it, and make it impossible to ignore. And CFT is doing that every day.
Governor Newsom’s final state budget proposal addresses an anticipated deficit, but is based on revenue estimates that are higher than anticipated and does not assume a recession or market downturn in the 2026-27 fiscal year. The proposals for education include modest increases and largely avoids cuts but also includes a controversial proposal to withhold $5.6 billion from Prop. 98. CFT is aligned with other education labor and advocacy groups in opposition of this proposal.
The Part-Timer promotes the interests of part-time faculty working in the California community colleges. It contains news about the movement to establish better conditions of employment for adjunct faculty, both in California and North America.
We look forward to seeing you!
Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.
