Newsroom
Election 2018: CFT’s heavy lifting helps flip seats, elect Thurmond, win local races
As anxious citizens watched the November 6 midterm election results, they weren’t at all sure how candidates and measures would fare. Results trickled in, but many races remained too close to call for weeks.
Strike? Stand with L.A. teachers to win the schools students deserve
UPDATE: After the factfinding report was released on December 18, UTLA announced it will go on strike January 10.
A Red-for-Ed wave rolled through downtown Los Angeles on December 15 as tens of thousands of members and supporters of United Teachers Los Angeles protested large class sizes, low pay, over-testing, a shortage of school nurses and other support staff, and the unregulated growth of charter schools.
It’s a family affair: When parents and children are union brothers and sisters
“Working for a small district has its pros and cons,” said Carl Williams, “but it’s mostly pros.”
Williams is president of AFT Local 4529, the Lawndale Federation of Classified Employees. The federation represents about 450 staff in the Lawndale district’s six elementary and two middle schools.
Four members tell their stories of election success
Our voices must be heard! Members elected to district governing boards
Jeanie Wallace had considered running for office before. As a union rep for the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers and the chair of the local Democratic Party Central Committee, she knew how hard it could be to find candidates for the school board. But she thought she was too busy, and planned to do it when she retired.
Students need more mental health support on campus, faculty too
By Mia L. McIver, President UC-AFT
In a recent survey of UC-AFT faculty, members highlighted mental health as an issue that deserves our union’s attention and energy. UC students experiencing psychological challenges often seek support from lecturers and other contract faculty, who are sometimes the only faculty with whom they can develop a one-to-one relationship.
Retirees stay true to the cause – keeping political, union skills sharp
AFT activists don’t stop being active when they retire. United Teachers Los Angeles retiree Jimmie Woods-Gray, for example, remains a whirlwind in the fight to stop the privatization of public education. UC-AFT Riverside’s Stephanie Kay, meanwhile, continues the daily fight for lecturers’ rights on University of California campuses.
Rank & Files
Nov-Dec 2018
KATHRYN MAYO, instructor of photography at Cosumnes River College and member of the Los Rios Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 2279, grew up in a rural farming community just outside Selma, Alabama. Her narrative photography work – We are Selma: The Selma Portrait Project – will be honored at the local’s Union Hall Gallery in Sacramento in February.
Tony Thurmond wins State Superintendent race!
Updated November 19, 2018
Following a hard fought campaign, Assemblymember Tony Thurmond has won the election to be California’s next Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Across the state, teachers and school workers celebrated Thurmond’s election as a resounding call by voters to protect public education. Fighting the headwinds of unprecedented spending by a handful of billionaires and mega-donors in support of Marshall Tuck, Thurmond ran a campaign based on investing in all public schools and supporting all students.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose…
Online college and student performance-based funding
By Jim Mahler, President, Community College Council
After a very long, hard fought battle beginning in January and ending in June, we lost our struggle against the governor regarding both the Online College and the Performance-Based Funding initiatives.
In case you weren’t already aware, the governor wields a lot of power, and, believe it or not, these two initiatives were at the top of his agenda with respect to the budget for the entire state of California!
Letters to the Editor
The real effort should be pay equity at the state level
I have taught part-time music at Cabrillo College for 31 years at the maximum number of units. I am a bit dismayed about the 80 percent cap (Convention votes to raise part-time workload cap to 80 percent, Spring 2018) because that means that the colleges can now cover more classes with underpaid part-timers.
This means fewer full-time jobs, which will make everything (committee work, student contact hours outside of the classroom, etc.) more difficult for the teaching staffs. I understand that the extra work is a godsend for many part-timers but the real effort should be pay equity at the state level, not the local level.
Freeway Flyers: Local action & quick news
Yuba adjunct wins President’s Award, Fresno adjunct wins Hayward Award
This spring, Neelam Canto-Lugo, an adjunct professor of communications at Yuba College in Marysville, and member of the Yuba College Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 4952, was awarded the gold-level President’s Volunteer Service Award for her work in poorer communities of Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Nepal, among other countries.
AFT resolution supports $7,000 per three-credit course for adjuncts
One of the more talked about resolutions passed by the biennial AFT Convention this July was Resolution 15, which calls for AFT to support City University of New York adjuncts in their quest to achieve through “actions, demonstrations, and advocacy,” a minimum of $7,000 per three-credit class.
The resolution, which passed with resounding support and no opposition, also supports this minimum in “all other AFT locals’ campaigns for fair adjunct pay.”