Topic: Organizing
Delivering for the union: Signing up new members one stop at a time
Driver and local president Albert Lopez moves between 13 campuses
The Riverside County community of Menifee is on the upswing. More than 1,000 new homes are under construction, new businesses are opening their doors, and new families are moving in. The Menifee Union School District sees increased enrollment on the horizon. The Menifee Council of Classified Employees is also expanding. In fact, the CFT recently honored the local for placing second in two categories recognizing member growth: most new members (151) and highest rate of growth (42 percent).
Supreme Court set to rule against union ‘fair share’
Conservatives launch another attack on workers, unions, democracy
Quick download: FAQ about Janus v. AFSME (pdf, 2pp)
What will the court decide?
The lawsuit Janus v. AFSCME asks the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether public sector unions may continue to charge non-members in a workplace represented by the union a fee (“agency fee” or “fair share”) equal to the cost of representing them. The court’s ruling is expected early next year.
Tried and true methods: Union organizing begins in the workplace
By Joshua Pechthalt, CFT President
We learned in the final days of September that the U.S. Supreme Court will take up another union fair share case. With the court’s ruling coming early next year, it feels like we are on a ship with an iceberg rapidly approaching. Fortunately, as we prepare for an unfavorable decision in the Janus v. AFSCME case, we had already prepared for the similar Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case.
Delivering for the union: Signing up new members one stop at a time
Driver and local president Albert Lopez moves between 13 campuses
The Riverside County community of Menifee is on the upswing. More than 1,000 new homes are under construction, new businesses are opening their doors, and new families are moving in. The Menifee Union School District sees increased enrollment on the horizon. The Menifee Council of Classified Employees is also expanding. In fact, the CFT recently honored the local for placing second in two categories recognizing member growth: most new members (151) and highest rate of growth (42 percent).
Members unite to fight Trump’s immigration orders
Council builds solidarity by engaging with members on issues that unite
Before the election our focus was on leadership development,” says Mia McIver, vice president for organizing for the University Council-AFT, “and the election brought us a sense of new urgency.” Strong leaders will provide the underpinning for the campaigns the union will undertake as it faces the Trump administration and a predictable tsunami of anti-union and anti-education measures.
Night shift custodians work together, fight short staffing
Midnight organizing at El Camino College pays off
During the day, Manhattan Beach Boulevard overflows with traffic, but the only thing whipping down the street at 10 p.m. is a cold night wind. To the north, the lights of approaching jets trace the landing path to LAX in the night sky.
Darlene Esquivel pulls into a staff parking lot alongside the facilities management building at El Camino College. Esquivel is one of about 30 custodians on the graveyard shift who put the Torrance campus back in shape nightly while more than 22,000 students sleep.
Campus Equity Week can build adjunct-student solidarity
October 24-28 is Campus Equity Week
Most part-time instructors are aware of how damaging adjunct working conditions can be to our lives economically, physically, emotionally, and psychologically. You may also be aware of how these working conditions can hurt students, the institutions, and tenure-track, full-time employees as well.
But how aware are students?
AFT honors San Diego organizer, Lawndale Federation
Tina Solórzano Fletcher of the AFT Guild, which represents nearly 6,000 employees at San Diego and Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community Colleges, was honored with the Talking Union Award at the annual AFT Paraprofessional and School-Related Personnel conference in April. Fletcher is a member-organizer for AFT Local 1931.
This year, the local prioritized one-on-one contact with non-members, and from September 1 through May 31, signed up 506 new members.
Organizing: Building our union power
In a panel discussion moderated by Joanne Waddell, president of the Los Angeles College Faculty Guild, four leaders in very different situations — three from California and one from Texas, a right-to-work state — talked about what they’d done to significantly increase their membership and get people involved with the union.
Freeway Flyers: Local action & quick news
Campus Equity Week draws attention to inequities among faculty in higher education and calls for economic justice, job security, and institutional support for contingent and part-time faculty. Originally organized by the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor, these October events aim to bring greater awareness to the precarious situation for contingent faculty in higher education, organize for action, and build solidarity.
One conversation at a time: Part-time faculty join the union in record numbers
By Linda Sneed
As a CFT vice president and representative of part-time faculty in my district, I’m pleased by the efforts made by my local union and the CFT to strengthen member engagement and outreach. The CFT “Building Our Power” campaign is helping locals do a better job of not only sharing information with bargaining unit members but seeking their input.
Worksite organizing fires up classified local unions
Member-organizers motivate fee payers to become full members
Across the state, classified employees are convincing fee payers to upgrade to full union membership, and convincing coworkers to support the union’s Committee on Political Education, or COPE.
The flurry of internal organizing falls under the twin banners of the Strategic Campaign Initiative and Building Our Power. Grants from the former help locals meet their political organizing goals, while the latter awards grants based on potential for member growth.
Workers’ Rights Boards: Making a difference in the lives of educators
PETALUMA
Over the past few months, teachers in two California cities have
looked to a new labor-community institution to help resolve
seemingly intractable problems in negotiations.
The path forward runs through the streets of our towns, cities, and the nation’s capital
By Joshua Pechthalt, CFT President
It’s time for the labor movement to remember what energized our ranks and inspired American workers to join unions. As we face a continued decline in membership and legal challenges that threaten to erode the strength of public sector unions and the movement as a whole, now more than ever, we need to take our message to the streets.
Activists work hard in week-long Union Summer School
The CFT’s annual Union Summer School kicked off on Monday, June 22, with rank-and-file members from CFT locals across the state in residence at Cal Poly Pomona’s Kellogg Conference Center.
A half dozen week-long classes kept the union activists busily
engaged with nuts and bolts union skill-building led by CFT staff
and leadership. The majority were first-time attendees at
the popular training.
Librarian masters digital tools for workplace and union
Carla Arbagey creates infographics to illustrate workload
UC Riverside librarian Carla Arbagey says, “Technology is like air to me.” It is essential in the library, where she integrates systems and tracks information on more than 3.4 million items. She is the winner of the 2014 Technology New Leader Award from the California Library Association, and a self-described “type-A personality” who likes things to be tidy, organized, and efficient.
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.
Electrical workers unleash organizing stewards for social justice
How does a new PG&E worker like Nilda Garcia become an organizer traveling the nation to fight for social justice? Garcia is one of a group of “organizing stewards” that has ignited passion in her union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1245.
Berkeley teachers commit art for justice
Two union campaigns strengthen the bonds of community
In February, Berkeley teachers posted 1,000 “Black Lives Matter” signs in classrooms, hallways, administrative offices and on school grounds to highlight recent court decisions on the police shootings of young black men. They are also distributing “Black Lives Matter” lesson plans and resources to teachers in every grade level at the nearly 20 district sites.