Help keep Free City alive!
Our landmark Free City college pilot project has been wildly successful but is still set to expire in June 2019. Supervisor Jane Kim has proposed a City Charter amendment that could fund and stabilize Free City College, but she still needs our support to get it passed!
- Stand in solidarity with us as this measure appears before the City Hall rules committee again on Monday, December 3. The most important thing for the upcoming hearing on Monday is for us to be present in chambers to show support. Please join us at City Hall in room 250 at 11am.
- Send an email message to our Board of Supervisors. Let’s tell San Francisco’s elected leaders: WE NEED TO KEEP CITY COLLEGE FREE! If Free City has already helped you succeed, share your story. In the spirit of the holiday season, add a personal comment about why you are thankful for Free City.
Yesterday, more than 60 students, faculty, labor and community allies gave public comment in support of Jane Kim’s measure to keep the Free City college program alive to San Francisco Board of Supervisors Rules Committee members. Supervisor Norman Yee made a friendly amendment to extend the charter amendment from 10 years 20 years.
After that the hearing was a nail-biter! As the SF Examiner reported: “In an unexpected move, the Board of Supervisors Rules Committee reversed its vote Wednesday, reviving Supervisor Jane Kim’s hopes of placing a Free City College charter amendment on the November ballot before she leaves office. Rules Committee Chair Ahsha Safai made a motion to rescind an earlier vote where he and Supervisor Catherine Stefani moved to block the measure from reaching the full board for approval.”
Immediately after the initial unfavorable vote AFT 2121, with the help of the Labor Council, students, and our community allies in the Free City College Coalition asked members of the Board of Supervisors who support the measure to appeal to Supervisors Safai and Stefani to let the measure to move forward. And we were successful!
Membership: It’s a new era
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We know that well-funded anti-union groups like the Freedom Foundation will be working to recruit you to drop your membership. Their campaign in California has already started. These groups understand the power of working people having each others’ backs – and they don’t want that! But we’ve seen a surge of union pride this semester: Over 100 colleagues have signed up this Fall
Visibility: show your support!
Just as we need to support our candidates in elections, we need to give our Union ongoing support. This holiday season, take the time to show your support. We will be organizing a Membership Drive December 5-8th. Our latest effort is not just about becoming a member. It’s all about standing together and showing our solidarity. Here’s what you can do:
- Not yet a member? Fill out a membership form.
- Already a member? Volunteer to help sign up your colleagues as members so we can remain strong.
- Everyone: get together with your colleagues and take a picture with our “Sticking with my Union” signs, wearing your AFT 2121 t-shirt or button and share it on social media (and with us). Let’s show each other and the world that we are our Union (and stronger than ever).
Rally & March to Support Striking Hospitality Workers Saturday
On October 4, nearly 2,500 workers walked off the job at seven Marriott hotels. Their strike has continued night and day since then as they fight to change the direction of service sector jobs in San Francisco. On Saturday, December 1st the Bay Area Labor Movement is coming out to support these workers.
ONE JOB SHOULD BE ENOUGH
Too many people must work two or even three jobs just to make ends meet.
Our city is becoming one of the hardest places to live, as working people’s wages fall farther behind. And when we work long hours to pay the bills, it’s our families and our communities that suffer. Big companies like Marriott can afford to pay enough for us to live in the city where we work – we’re fighting to make them.
Everyone deserves a job they can depend on and that doesn’t ruin their body. Marriott and other hotel companies constantly figure out how to make more money with fewer workers. They even do this by pretending to care about our environment. Marriott’s “Green Choice” program, for example, encourages guests to reject room cleaning services. But what that really means is we get called in to work less often, and the job is even harder on our bodies when we do.
San Franciscans need jobs that are safe, secure, and enough to make ends meet. Marriott workers have taken up that fight and won’t stop until we win!
JOIN US
Saturday, December 1st at 11 AM
Local 2 Justice Plaza (Market Street/Yerba Buena Lane)
Let’s show Marriott that San Francisco is a union town.
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