Topic: Organizing
“Unsung heroes” of schoolyard organize
Noon duty supervisors to have their own contract
Sixty unsung heroes flexed their union muscle and joined the Lawndale Federation of Classified Employees.
Noon duty supervisors serve as at-will employees and work only a few hours a day at the district’s six elementary and two middle schools, but the final straw, according to Local President Carl Williams, was not getting a 4 percent raise that faculty and classified received.
West Valley-Mission faculty choose AFT/CFT as their union
Independent association affiliates, brings 750 teachers better union representation
Citing disrespect by their district and low pay as motivation, more than 90 percent of faculty at the West Valley-Mission Community College District casting ballots in the November 19 representational election chose to affiliate their previously independent union with AFT/CFT.
New organizing chief embraces democracy campaign
“You See (UC) Democracy?”aims for systemwide change and a fully enfranchised faculty
Chris Hables Gray is widely known in academic circles for his research on the U.S. military post-World War II. The UC Santa Cruz lecturer has also written extensively about how technology is transforming humans.
French language school staffs choose AFT as their union
Workers at three Bay Area private schools gain a stronger voice in the workplace
When math teacher Cheryl LaBrecque joined the staff of the French American International School in San Francisco in 1999, the preK-12 school was small and “things worked better.” Staff members “had a closer relationship with administration,” she says. Since then, it has become “more corporate, more top-down, more about money.”
Los Angeles County closes Kedren Head Start
After months of mobilizing staff, parents and community allies from Watts and Koreatown to East Los Angeles, Early Childhood Federation President Ruben Siguenza recently sent supporters some bad news. “I regret to inform you that our fight is over,” Siguenza wrote in an April 18 email. “We have lost Kedren Head Start.”
Small AFT locals get big attention from new task force
By the Numbers | AFT local unions
3,370 Number of locals chartered by the AFT
3,019: Locals with fewer than 600 members
(90 percent)
1,819: Locals with fewer than 100 members
(54 percent)
One in four of AFT’s 1.56 million members belong to a small local, and 90 percent of AFT local unions are considered small, defined as having fewer than 600 members.
While belonging to a small local can foster a sense of teamwork, small locals often come up short of the resources, training and volunteers to effectively represent members, according to a new AFT task force.
Educators at French school say “Oui!” to AFT
CFT welcomes teachers and staff at Lycée Français de San Francisco
Teachers and staff at the French immersion school Lycée Français de San Francisco choose to have the support of strong state and national unions by affiliating with the CFT and AFT.
UCLA professor leads mobilization of lecturers and librarians
Statewide campaign builds on established strength in campus locals
Goetz Wolff has taught at UCLA for more than 20 years, but was generally more involved with Southern California’s vibrant labor movement than with the union on his job. Wolff, for example, earned high praise for his six years as research director at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, but barely knew the ins and outs of the University Council-AFT.
More part-time faculty choose AFT/CFT as their union
Non-credit faculty at Citrus College, Grossmont-Cuyamaca Colleges join locals
Faculty teaching non-credit courses at both Citrus College and the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Colleges have chosen AFT as their union. Non-credit hourly part-time faculty at Citrus and continuing education part-time faculty at Grossmont-Cuyamaca had been paid significantly less than their colleagues teaching for-credit courses.
Now the faculty have union representation, are on salary schedules with opportunities for schedule advancement, and can accrue sick leave.
Mark James Miller: Meet one of the hardest working organizers of part-timers
English instructor and president of the Part-Time Faculty Association of Allan Hancock College Mark James Miller says that one of the accomplishments of which he is most proud is “getting administrators to recognize how important part-time faculty are. Part-time faculty used to be invisible to them, or seen as just interchangeable parts. That’s not the case anymore.”
Early educators fight reckless closure of community Head Start
Congresswoman Maxine Waters questions motives of L.A. County Office of Education
Watts was still smoldering from the riots in 1965 when Kedren Head Start began serving local families. Today, about 350 Kedren employees care for more than 2,100 children at 32 sites from South Los Angeles and Koreatown to the Eastside.
“All of us work in low-income, dangerous areas,” said Margaret Garcia, a family service advocate at one of Kedren’s multiple Watts facilities. An undercurrent of violence runs through the neighborhoods.
Domestic Worker Bill of Rights corrects historic wrongs
Seven-year journey to bring overtime protections to personal attendants
They work in the shadows of society and have been excluded from the most basic of labor protections. Yet those domestic workers who care for seniors, children and the disabled, have risen above their historic isolation, built an effective coalition and performed the seven years of heavy lifting that saw their struggle succeed.
Union establishes Retiree Organizing Committee to build new chapters
The CFT has established the Retiree Organizing Committee to help local unions take advantage of the experience, skills and commitment of retired union members.
The goal of this new standing committee is to organize AFT retiree chapters around the state so that retirees may continue to contribute to their unions — and have opportunities to connect with former colleagues.
Classified Conference showcases history of effective representation
The annual conference hosted by the CFT Council of Classified Employees featured exciting plenary speakers, elected officials, a big fun Mardi Gras-themed party, and workshops for nearly every interest. The event was held October 18-20 at Hilton Orange County in Costa Mesa.
Participants celebrated 31 years of classified representation through unionism, honoring council leaders, past and present, and highlighting the key role that classified employees perform every day in California’s schools and colleges.
Educators at three charter schools choose AFT as their union
From a county jail to construction academy, charter workers are seeking union representation
Seeking a larger voice in their workplaces, career stability and the power to better serve their students, teachers and counselors at three charter schools recently voted AFT as their union, and will have the benefit of belonging to well-established and effective AFT local unions.
Locals take bold steps to build power in tough times
Faculty-classified alliance, improved communications empower members
Two Southern California classified locals
have recently seen how unity pays off.
“Our members understand that the more of us who go in, the
stronger voice we have,” says Debbi Claypool, president of the
Palomar Council of Classified Employees.
The northern San Diego County local represents about 400 classified employees at Palomar College, including maintenance, clerical, police, payroll and janitorial, according to Claypool, a business services technician.
Get Connected
Organizations and campaigns advocating for contingent faculty
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL
Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL ) An integrated coalition of activists from faculty organizations and unions representing contingent, non-tenured faculty members in all segments of higher education in North-America, with the goals of coordinating activities to educate the public about the inequities of contingent faculty, promoting legislation, and improving bargaining rights, working conditions and education standards.
Worldwide group of contingent faculty strategize
Faculty face same issues in United States, Canada, South Korea and Mexico
Part-time faculty members of CFT attended the 10th conference of COCAL International, the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor, in Mexico City, where California, despite its problems, was held up as a standard for part-time equity.
CFT grants help faculty organizers reach freeway flyers
One-on-one conversations galvanize part-timer participation
How can we convince more part-time faculty that union membership and participation are the single best way to improve working conditions, pay rate, and job security within California’s community colleges? One-on-one conversations, say part-time faculty Natasha Bauman and Sharon Kerr, whose local unions are both recipients of a new grant from CFT. The Member Organizing Committee, or MOC, grant helps locals conduct member outreach and sign up new members.
Tonkovich teaches and organizes with humor, joy and irony
UC Irvine lecturer and author credits mentors, and Ronald Reagan, for his activism
Q&A with Andrew Tonkovich
Andrew Tonkovich is a lecturer in the English department at UC Irvine and president of UC-AFT Irvine, Local 2226. He edits the literary magazine Santa Monica Review, and hosts Bibliocracy Radio, a weekly books show on KPFK 90.7 FM in Southern California. Recent short stories, essays and reviews of his have appeared in Faultline, The Rattling Wall, OC Weekly and the Los Angeles Review of Books.