CFA Members’ Historic Systemwide Strike Begins Monday

The California Faculty Association reached impasse in their contract negotiations with CSU management in August 2023 and has been making their way through the mediation and fact finding process since then. At the end of this long, laborious process, they were presented with a last, best, and final offer of only a 5% increase, despite the neutral PERB fact finder recommending 7% and the union demanding 12% to keep faculty salaries ahead of inflation.

Cal State Faculty have responded by deploying the ultimate leverage available to organized labor and have called for a system-wide strike to fight for a fair contract and livable wages for their members. See CFA’s press release here.

CFA members at California State University campuses will be on strike January 22-26, and will be joined in solidarity by Teamsters Local 2010 members. CFA members are striking for better salaries, working conditions, and learning spaces.

Fresh from our own struggle for a fair pay increase, we have an opportunity to join our CFA siblings on the picket line at SF State University (1600 Holloway, SF). Sign up for a shift HERE. Check out their website for more info on the strike and the issues.

Submit Your Preference Forms!

Your AFT Grievance Team has recently seen quite a few violations of our contract around assignments, especially in departments where preference forms are not in consistent use. Every semester, it is vital that all faculty fill out a preference form–even if your chair doesn’t ask you for one. It is in everyone’s interest to provide your chair with one and better not to assume your chair knows what you want. Preference forms apply to all faculty.

When you fill it out, write down your actual preference, even if you think those assignments aren’t available. Things can change quickly and this form is the official record that you have asked for an assignment.

More detail here.

Academic Calendar Update

The 24-25 Academic Calendar is almost settled! The District has agreed to the summer and fall portions of AFT 2121’s proposal. We are still waiting for a response on the spring 2025 portion.

Here’s the 2024 summer and fall schedule.

COVID Sick Leave

In 2020, AFT 2121 negotiated an agreement to award extra sick leave to faculty who worked in person during the COVID shut-down. When the District tried to unilaterally stop accruals, AFT pursued a long, drawn out grievance and filing for arbitration before we were able to finally reach settlement in July 2023. If you worked in person at any time from March 2020 – December 2022, you should have received 1.5x your normal sick leave accrual for the in-person part of your assignment. More detail here.

The District has finally posted our COVID sick leave in the Employee Dashboard. That means faculty can now take a look and see if the numbers shown there are correct. We know that some errors have been fixed but we suspect there will still be problems.

Please check your Employee Dashboard:

• Log in to MyCCSF
• Choose MyRAM Portal, then Employee, then Employee Dashboard
• You should see tiles at the top for the different types of sick leave you’ve earned. If the tiles aren’t visible, try clicking on “Full Leave Balance information” at the right-hand edge of the top section.

The different kinds of sick leave are administrative distinctions that are not important for you and the use of your leave. All sick leave can be used in the same way, no matter where it came from. (See this page for general information about sick leave.)

Two of the tiles refer to COVID leave:

• “Sick Leave Covid Hours in hours” = Sick leave hours. All faculty who work in non-credit, counseling, library, and non-instructional assignments earn sick leave in hours. All PT faculty earn sick leave in hours, no matter what our assignment.
• “Sick Leave Covid Days in hours” = Sick leave days. FT faculty who work in credit earn sick leave in days.

How can I tell if the numbers are correct?

• More detail about the calculations are here.
• You can use this calculator. There are separate tabs for FT and PT faculty.
• Your chair and dean should have reported your COVID hours to HR. You can ask them what they reported.

If the leave shown in the employee dashboard is not correct, report it right away on this form. The form will automatically send a copy to payroll and to AFT 2121.

Accreditation Report & Letter: The Work Continues

The expected has happened. City College has retained its accreditation, and the hard work of faculty leaders throughout the college is very clear in the Accrediting Commission’s report (see here).

There will be much negative sensationalizing around the warning letter (here) attached to this report, and that will be driven by those with external agendas. The truth is this report and warning letter confirm what we already knew: City College’s programs and services are a jewel in California’s public education system– thanks to the hard work of faculty and staff–but our institution is in need of stronger leadership.

Our college needs a new Chancellor who can work constructively and collaboratively with our constituency groups and Board of Trustees to ensure City College is meeting San Francisco’s demand for accessible higher ed degrees and workforce training. Our mission and future financial stability depend on it.

Departments with unmet demand should be expanded, and our new Chancellor should be an open and collaborative leader with a vision that puts students and the communities we serve at the very center. Cutting tenured faculty in fully enrolled programs from Chemistry, to Computer Networking, to English was a mistake.

It is time to move forward–to find a new Chancellor who can fully support our essential work of serving students.

Help Elect Pro-City College Candidates this Weekend

In seven weeks, a primary election will be occurring in San Francisco for the Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC), the governing body of San Francisco’s Democratic party. This election will have serious consequences for future Trustee elections and by extension the future of our college. In your recent contract negotiations, it was our Trustees working alongside your bargaining team who pushed the administration to recognize and meet the needs of faculty and programs.

We need to ensure that City College continues to have Board members who are similarly dedicated to faculty, to students, and to fulfilling our mission as a vital institution in this city.

Trustees Vick Chung and Anita Martinez, and former EOPS Counseling Chair Adolfo Velasquez, are three of the candidates running for seats on SF’s Democratic Committee, and this weekend, CCSF faculty are joining mobilizations to support their candidacies.  

We’ll be distributing literature in Excelsior, Bernal Heights, and the Richmond Saturday and Sunday at 10am. To sign up for supporting City College this weekend, enter your info here. A calendar of January events can be found here.

Join us for the AFT 2121 Flex Day Meeting Friday, January 12, 3:30-4:30pm

Get your questions answered about implementation of our new contract and join your colleagues in looking forward to our upcoming efforts for City College–in faculty working conditions, student experience, and community connections.  

Register for the online meeting here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEvdeiqpz4jG9YVcWDbBbcROxrwmlOSjyau

Volunteer to Elect Pro-City College Candidates this Weekend

City College’s elected Board of Trustees play a pivotal role in governing the operations of our college.

In only 9 weeks, a primary election will be occurring in San Francisco that will have serious consequences for future Trustee elections. The defeat of incumbents and the election of new Trustees in fall 2022 has been instrumental in bringing hope to City College students, faculty, and community members, and made an instrumental difference in AFT’s ability to win our recent contract. The three new trustees won the election in no small part because of endorsements from the Democratic County Central Committee, the central governing body for Democrats in San Francisco and a key player in endorsements and policy in our predominantly Democratic city.

Right now, two of our Trustees, Vick Chung and Anita Martinez, are running for seats on this Democratic Committee, and this weekend, CCSF faculty are joining mobilizations to help them get elected. This Saturday and Sunday at 10am, we’ll be distributing literature in Duboce Triangle, the Inner Sunset, and Noe Valley. Volunteer here.

You can find a schedule of January’s events here.

Help us spread the word! Share the event and our volunteer form with your colleagues!

Happy New Year All,

City College’s elected Board of Trustees play a pivotal role in governing the operations of our college. 

In only 9 weeks, a primary election will be occurring in San Francisco that will have serious consequences for future Trustee elections. The defeat of incumbents and the election of new Trustees in fall 2022 has been instrumental in bringing hope to City College students, faculty, and community members. We won in this election in no small part because of endorsements from the Democratic County Central Committee, the central governing body for Democrats in San Francisco.

That’s why it’s crucial that AFT 2121 members volunteer now for the March election–to ensure we have a Board dedicated to standing up for our contract, our students, and our college.

“The Labor and Working Families” slate is starting the new year by hosting a campaign kick-off event on Saturday, January 6th. What is this slate? The Labor and Working Families slate is a pro-union, pro-public school group of candidates committed to standing up for San Francisco’s students and the educators who serve them. Come join the educators, unions, working families, and community organizers supporting this slate at 10am this Saturday (1/6) at the Panhandle Playground. 

If you would like to attend, please RSVP with this link: https://forms.gle/JVQYM9hhkYGhFJnq7

Check out their website to learn more about this slate: https://www.laborandworkingfamilies.com/

AFT 2121 Financial Planning Day – registration now open!!

The younger you are when you start planning your financial future, the brighter that future will be. One part of that future will be your retirement. Planning for retirement when you are 25 or 35 might seem far off but it isn’t.

Whatever your age, young or not so young, all members are invited:

Invest in Your Future: From New Hire to End of Career

15th Annual Financial Planning Day

Thursday, January 11, 2024
CCSF Independent Flex Day

Virtual Zoom event
Presented by AFT 2121 and AFT 2121R Retiree Chapter

The program includes six different workshops, speakers and opportunities to hang out and discuss retirement questions with our local’s retirement experts. Whatever stage of planning you are at, and wherever you are in your career at CCSF, you’ll find helpful information for planning ahead here.

Register here: tinyurl.com/fpdreg

Schedule is here: tinyurl.com/fpdsch

Start your new year’s resolutions early! Sign up now and plan ahead for your future!!

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When will I receive my retroactive raise & restoration for 21-22?

Payroll is working on implementing your retroactive payment for your new (9% higher) salary for this fiscal year (July 1 – June 30), but they have informed us that they have not been able to complete the changes needed for the new pay schedule to be implemented for December 2023 payroll. AFT 2121 is in constant touch with payroll to ensure this payment occurs as quickly as possible, and we hope that payroll is able to process the first round of retroactive payments in January.

The pay out for your salary cut in 2021-2 will take longer than these first retroactive payments. AFT 2121 is working with payroll on this matter and expects the payments to go out as direct deposits or checks in the spring.

When will I receive my retroactive raise & restoration for 21-22?

Payroll is working on implementing your retroactive payment for your new (9% higher) salary for this fiscal year. AFT 2121 is in constant touch with payroll to ensure this payment occurs as quickly as possible, and we hope that payroll is able to process the first round of retroactive payments in January.

The pay out for your salary cut in 2021-2 will take longer than these first retroactive payments. AFT 2121 is working with payroll on this matter and expects the payments to go out as direct deposits or checks in the spring.

Details & Further Takeaways on Ratification Vote

300 out of 318 FT eligible members voted

286 out of 428 PT eligible members voted

More FT faculty voted in the ratification of our tentative agreement, despite there having been more eligible PT faculty voters. Department chairs who are members are not eligible to vote on TAs. In AFT leadership elections, all members, including chairs, are permitted to vote.

Why were there more eligible part-timers?

The proportion of part-timers has increased at City College because the administration has made a deliberate effort to reduce the number of full-time faculty. This leads to the over-work of full-time faculty, erodes the working conditions of our profession for all, and undermines the service we can provide students. Adjunctification is bad for all faculty and bad for students.

The part-time payscale at CCSF is set at 86% of the full-time scale. This percentage is called pro-rata, and it is higher at CCSF than at many other colleges. For years at City College, the pro-rata pay of part-time faculty acted as a bulwark against efforts to reduce the proportion of full-time faculty at CCSF by de-incentivizing the college from replacing full-time faculty with part-timers. The pro-rata payscale is good for full-time faculty job security. This helps explain why City College had been an exception in a higher ed landscape increasingly dominated by adjunct faculty. That is now changing.

The administration’s ongoing refusal to replace FT positions when faculty leave or retire, and the recent, unprecedented layoff of tenured and tenure-track faculty has brought adjunctification to City College. Chancellor David Martin has made it very clear that a major goal of his has been to reduce the proportion of full-time faculty at our school, that is, to undermine tenure and promote the adjunctification of our community.

Who benefits from undermining FT faculty?  

The savings higher education institutions have garnered through increasing the proportion of PT faculty has not benefited those FT faculty left. Rather, it has benefited administrators–the number and pay of administrators has skyrocketed since the 1970s, while the salaries and working conditions of faculty have deteriorated. Faculty have been part of America’s disappearing middle class.

For more on this, see a recent report from the American Institute for Economic Research: “In 1970, tenured and tenure-track professors made up 78 percent of all teaching faculty. Now that percentage has reversed, with 73 percent of faculty positions being ‘adjunct’ or ‘contingent,’ and just one professor in five actually tenured.”

What can we do about it?

The solution is to use our power in numbers, as full-time and part-time faculty working together, to advocate strategically and persuasively for our programs, students, working conditions, and salaries. Eradicating the pro-rata payscale at City College and paying part-time faculty less will not benefit full-time faculty or students. It will further encourage the erosion of full-time faculty working conditions and the assault on tenure – as we experienced with the full-timer layoffs in 2022 – that have undermined higher education throughout the country.

January Medical Benefits

In January, many part-timers don’t know what our Spring semester workload will be. So CCSF uses our Fall load to determine benefits eligibility. But we still have to pay the January premiums.

• If you have medical insurance through CCSF in Fall semester, eligibility continues through January 31, whether or not you have a Spring assignment.

• If you have a Spring assignment, or if you are in Kaiser Member Only and therefore have no premium to pay, you don’t have to do anything.

• If you do not have a Spring assignment, you won’t have a paycheck, so HR cannot deduct your premium. If you are eligible for benefits, you can arrange to pay the January premium. The deadline to pay is December 24th.

If you are working part-time and you have to make a payment, you should already have received a letter from HR with instructions. But we’ve heard that some faculty have not received their letters. If you have not received it, tell HR immediately by emailing benefits@ccsf.edu. Also copy mfinkels@aft2121.org so our union can see the scale of the problem.

More details about January medical benefits here.

Unemployment

Part-time faculty are eligible for unemployment benefits over winter break. Apply on or immediately after your last day of work. If you have a full-term assignment, your last day is officially 12/19, even if your specific schedule doesn’t match that.

Detailed instructions for EDD applications here.