Resolutions and Policy

Whereas, all retirees who were CFT members in good standing when they retired are AFT members for life, and

Whereas, benefits provided by the state of California and by local school and college districts can change after someone retires and retirees need to be informed of these changes, and

Whereas, retired member activists have had their talents enriched by decades of effective dedicated service and productive labor activism, and

Whereas, Social Security was established in 1935, during the Great Depression, to provide for America’s retirement security and to provide for those in need, for survivors of deceased workers and disabled workers and their families; and

Whereas, in some 15 states in the United States including California, large parts of their public sector employees are not covered by Social Security; and

Whereas, California is experiencing multiple and intersecting crises that preceded but have been exacerbated by a global pandemic: an economic crisis for working people, a healthcare system that is failing large segments of our society, a long overdue reckoning with systemic racism, and a climate crisis; and

Whereas, the fiscal crisis in higher education has been decades in the making, and the recent public health and economic crises have been used to justify further austerity measures that already undermine the ability of educators to research and teach, and classified professionals to work and support successful educational opportunity; and

Whereas, field trips and curricular excursions are part of the approved curriculum and standards within districts in the state of California, and should not cause harm to students; and

Whereas, these trips are taxpayer funded;

Whereas, the members of the CFT are the essence of our union, and those members exercise their rights to elect their statewide leaders and to consider constitutional amendments, and policy resolutions, biennially as our constitution requires through election of delegates who meet in convention; and

Whereas, the CFT is a state labor organization governed by Title IV of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA) and elects its national leadership pursuant to the act; and

Whereas, on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, Donald J. Trump made it excruciatingly clear why he should not be President of the United States of America when he deliberately directed, encouraged, and incited his base, a group of terrorists, to storm the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., who then trespassed against, burglarized, and vandalized our primary seat of democracy, and threatened the lives of duly elected officials performing their constitutional responsibilities therein, as the world watched in horror; and

Whereas, CFT is a Union of Educators and Classified Professionals representing more than 120,000 employees working at every level of public and private education from Head Start to Universities of California, many of whom come from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, specifically Black racial and ethnic backgrounds; and

Whereas, CFT condemns those building blocks of racial oppression, anti-Black racism, and unconscious biases that provide the structural support for America’s historical foundation of systemic racism; and

Whereas, immigration is one of the defining political issues of our time. Millions of people are crossing national borders in the largest wave of global human migration since World War II. This modern migration has perplexed the world’s most dominant powers — nations have militarized their borders to combat peaceful and unarmed civilians, and politicians now rise and fall on the basis of their appeal either to a progressive internationalism or to xenophobic hatred.