Aleta Campbell, an executive board member of CFT Local 1521A in the Los Angeles Community College District, is the new director of activities for the local. She says her goal is to get people out to events so they can meet face to face, feel excited about the work the local is doing, and be fired up to be part of it. 

“I like getting people involved and in the same space physically, especially since COVID,” Campbell said. “I want them to enjoy themselves, learn something, and make new connections.”

Campbell, who works in student services, was thrilled with an event held at East Los Angeles College on September 10, Classified Rising: A Legacy of Building Power. She helped set up before the event as well as clean up after, and she says she enjoyed the whole process and the energy in the room.

That excitement is exactly what the new president Andrea Edwards wants. The local and the district have had a lot of upheaval in the last few years, she says, and she’s been working hard to change how people see their union and to remind everyone of the local’s legacy. The faculty guild (AFT Local 1521) was the first AFT/CFT community college faculty local in California to include classified, and when AFT 1521 A became its own local it became the largest AFT community college classified unit in the state.

Edwards wanted the Classified Rising event  to be as encouraging and informative as possible. She made sure to explain to members about their union benefits, which she had noticed many weren’t aware of. She also planned a strong line up of speakers with 1521A members, union leaders like CFT President Jeff Freitas and Council of Classified Employees President Carl Williams, and college trustees.

James McKeever, president of 1521, the faculty union, was encouraging as well.

“He actually got up and said, ‘I’d be nowhere without classified,’” Edwards said. “’We are going to shoulder this with you as we face this 8% deficit statewide that is impacting college funding to make sure classified are protected and no layoffs happen with you guys.’”

Campbell appreciated all the speakers’ passion, and hearing how they had come up through the union and had become activists. McKeever impressed her by talking about how he grew up in poverty and then got a graduate degree. She says he expressed that he wanted to make a pathway for classified and said he would “work in lockstep” with Edwards.

Katrelia Walker, a member of AFT 1521A, also attended the event. Walker, the Health and Wellness coordinator for the local, says her fellow members turn out for her trainings as well as fitness challenges, such as runs. The turmoil of the last few years has affected her programs, she says, and she’s glad about what Edwards is trying to do with the local.

“I’m pushing unity, unity, unity because I’ve known so many of the individual members for so long,” she said. “Throughout the pandemic and after they have been the largest audience for most of the trainings I have done virtually as well as in person.”

Walker wants to see her colleagues focused on building the local.

“Our union has lost some of its leverage, but I think we can gain it back,” she said. “That’s what I’m hoping Classified Rising does.”