Newsroom
Rank & Files, Apr-May 2015
Mediha Din, a part-time sociology instructor and member of the El Camino College Federation of Teachers, Local 1388, received a Gerald C. Hayward Award for Excellence in Education from the California Community Colleges, which comes with $1250. The award recognizes Din’s creative teaching strategies and outstanding work with at-risk students from diverse academic and cultural backgrounds, service as faculty advisor for the Muslim Student Association, and initiatives to engage students in community service.
Laura Rico: Ben Rust Award recipient inspired two generations
Laura Rico has worked in education for more than 40 years, starting as an early childhood teacher at the Artesia High School Children’s Center in the 1970s where she became a member of the ABC Federation of Teachers.
Retirees! CFT welcomes your participation in the new Council of Retired Members
CFT has formed a new division welcoming retiree participation and action, the Council of Retired Members. It is the first constitutional division the union has added in several decades. The Council elected its first officers at CFT Convention on March 20.
One by one: Organizing team signs up part-time faculty
Why does anyone join the union? …because someone asks them
Member organizers from local unions throughout the state joined forces at Palomar College to meet one-on-one with part-time faculty agency fee payers who had not yet signed their union cards — and asked them to join the union.
Local Wire, Apr-May 2015
ADULT EDUCATION
Funding in limbo… The last few years have been a
terrible time in the adult education world, according to Jack
Carroll, the executive director at the Pajaro Valley Federation
of Teachers. Carroll, who teaches office skills to adults, hopes
AB86 will alleviate that by providing $25 million for adult
education.
Floor debate: Delegates tackle rich array of social justice and education topics
Delegates took on social justice concerns, passing a resolution from the United Educators of San Francisco and the CFT Executive Council to officially support the “Black Lives Matter” movement. Resolution 23 calls for community meetings, teach-ins and curricula, such as what’s already posted on UESF’s website and AFT’s Share My Lesson.
Freeway Flyers: Local action & quick news
Santa Maria part-timers negotiate numerous improvements
Part-time instructors at Allan Hancock College negotiated an 8 percent pay increase over the next two years starting this spring when all part-time academic employees received a 4 percent salary increase. They will get a 2 percent raise this fall and another in fall 2016. In a tremendous boost, service faculty (counselors, librarians, and nurses) received an additional 20 percent pay increase.
New CFT bills create minimum job security standards, strengthen the 75:25 regulation
Job security and due
process for part-time faculty
AB 1010 (Medina, D-Riverside)
This bill calls for the establishment of minimum standards for part-time faculty job security. If enacted, it would require all California community colleges without a collectively bargained contract that provides equivalent or stronger job security and due process rights to establish a seniority list for part-time faculty rehire.
Loan forgiveness program may bring relief
Last year, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) made headlines with his “Adjunct Faculty Loan Fairness Act,” a bill that would have made it much easier for part-time faculty to benefit from the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, designed to encourage graduates to pursue a career in public service by offering loan forgiveness for those working full-time in government or the non-profit sector.
Paying for time but not for space: The need for a “room of one’s own” on campus
FIRST PERSON | Linda Sneed
We all know that our work takes place not just during scheduled class meetings, in classrooms on college campuses. We work in many times and places: early in the morning, through mealtimes, and late at night; in our cars, on public transportation, on our phones and personal computers, at home, in coffee shops, in public libraries.
Lessons learned: Wronged Peralta part-time instructors rehired
Sociology instructor Cynthia Mahabir is back in the classroom. What did it take to get her there, after her district mysteriously refused to honor its contract with faculty and rehire her after 17 years of teaching at Laney College?
CFT pushes CalSTRS to divest from gun manufacturing
UPDATE! On June 5, 2015, CalSTRS cashed out of its investment in gun manufacturer Remington Firearms, part of the Cerberus Capital Management portfolio. We thank CalSTRS for listening to CFT. Read story in the Sacramento Bee.
- State Treasurer John Chiang weighed in, supporting the action to divest, in a letter to CalSTRS.
- Read more
- VIDEO: Gun Free Retirement: How teachers are funding gun companies against their will
- IN THE NEWS: “CalSTRS wont rush to sell firearms investment,” Sacramento Bee
- IN THE NEWS: “California teachers demand a gun-free retirement,” KCRA



