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Jeff Freitas reelected CFT President, Luukia Smith Secretary Treasurer
ELECTION RESULTS
Results of the CFT officer elections were announced on May 1 after mail ballots were tabulated. The biennial election was held by mail due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a Virtual Convention. All newly elected leaders will take office on May 26, 2021.
State program matches funds classified employees set aside
What you need to know about Classified School Employee Summer Assistance
Bernard Benson is enrolled in the new Classified School Employee Summer Assistance Program. His deductions began in August and will continue through June. The state will match his savings up to a dollar for dollar in July.
“It would be ludicrous for me not to participate,” explained Benson. “Where else can I set aside $200 a month for 11 months and make a 100 percent return on my investment?”
State of the Union 2021
Delivered by CFT President Jeffery Freitas on March 26, 2021
Good morning, CFT. I’m thrilled to be here with all of you—my fellow CFT leaders, all my union siblings, CFT and local union staff, and invited guests.
This year’s Convention has a lot of firsts. It is my first State of the Union speech as CFT president and my first time presiding as chair of the Convention. This is the first of our biennial conventions which we approved in 2018 through a constitutional amendment by this very body. And, this is the first-ever virtual CFT Convention. While we are making the best of the current circumstances, I sincerely hope it will be the last virtual convention.
CFT joins campaign to forge a New Deal for Higher Education
With the new Biden administration and Congress come new opportunities to ensure significant, sustainable public investment in higher education.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the long-standing crisis in public higher education. Declining state support, the erosion of tenure and shared governance, the increased use of contingent appointments, and the loss of the faculty voice on campus are threatening the core mission of higher education in our society. Now is the time to stand up for a just, inclusive system of higher education — one that can help transform our society.
California education unions release school reopening plan
CLASSES — A Pathway to Bringing Students Back to Schools
California teachers and classified employees want nothing more than to be back in our physical classrooms and school sites and know first-hand there is no equal substitute to regular, in-person learning.
California’s schools are the heart of their communities. For many of our most vulnerable and underserved populations, they are lifelines. The educational, social and emotional needs of California’s students, particularly those who often lack the technological and additional education support to sustain distance learning, are of paramount concern.
The hope that 2021 brings
Looking back on a year like no other, but with recovery in sight
By Jeffery M. Freitas, CFT President
As I reflect upon the year that is reaching its end, the shock of all we have endured these past many months hits me anew. When we started this year, I felt hopeful with many opportunities for success and change.
Paul da Silva became the candidate he wanted to see
First teacher elected to College of Marin Board of Trustees
For years, Paul da Silva, a biology teacher at the College of Marin and a member of United Professors of Marin, Local 1610, wondered about the lack of teachers on the college’s Board of Trustees and tried to talk retiring professors into running. No one took him up on it.
So when he decided in the summer of 2019 that he would retire, he concluded, to paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi, he’d have to be the candidate he wished to see in the world.
A First Lady who is a community college teacher
President-elect supports two years of free community college
Dr. Jill Biden, a community college teacher, union member, and soon to be First Lady, spoke virtually to members of the AFT and the National Education Association, thanking them for all the phone banking, text messaging, voter registration drives and poll work they did to get her husband, Joe Biden, elected. AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA President Becky Pringle introduced her.
CFT website, UTLA strike series capture triple first place honors
Union wins nine first place awards for communications
The CFT won nine First Place awards in the International Labor Media Communications contest for work published in 2019, in a competition delayed by a few months because of the pandemic.
2019 was a busy year for the CFT and for union communications. In the first three months alone, the union experienced the UTLA strike, the launch of the new CFT website, and CFT’s 100th Anniversary Convention.
What I did to help win in Election 2020
Five retirees recount their extraordinary efforts
CFT retirees have broad-ranging interests and community relationships — and a lot of collective power. That is reflected in these five first-person accounts from very connected and active retirees.
With COVID on campus, strategic action saves classified jobs
Unions save graveyard custodial shift, defeat layoffs
El Camino College has been slowly resuming activity. Nursing, auto repair, construction and other “essential classes” returned to the Torrance campus in late September, along with scores of custodians, groundkeepers, computer techs and facilities staff.
Returning to normal is another matter. Administrators are trying to eliminate the night shift, even though “graveyard” is typically the busiest time for custodians. Meanwhile, four COVID cases on campus have underlined the pandemic’s ongoing threat, as well as the importance of properly trained and equipped cleaning crews.
A snapshot of Election 2020
The so-sweet national victory, mixed state results, and locals wins
On November 3, voters went to the polls to turn things around in our country and in our state. Or rather, many went to the polls, but many more had already cast mail ballots in the days and weeks leading up to the election, a sign of the times during a year of “stay at home” orders.
Peralta reaches 100 percent pay parity; locals win distance education support
From course conversion stipends to health benefits extensions
In spite of the pandemic, a number of local unions won big gains for adjuncts, from parity pay to distance education, to the preservation of healthcare for adjuncts with reduced loads. These wins are especially significant at this time in which revenues are falling and concerns over future budgets made many administrators skittish to bargain.