Thank you to all of the members who came to support the AFT2121 bargaining team on Friday, April 9. Your continued presence at our bargaining sessions is crucial! The next session is Friday, 4/16 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Please register.
Before the session, AFT 2121 attended supervisor Hillary Ronen’s City Hall hearing on CCSF’s budget. AFT presented on the current state of CCSF’s budget and the impacts of massive layoffs on both students and the college’s continued fiscal solvency. Many City College supporters spoke, including faculty, students, and student trustee Vick Van Chung who gave powerful and moving testimony. You can watch a recording (our hearing begins at 1:32:50).
The CCSF administration did not attend the forum at City Hall, prioritizing working on laying off faculty, rather than working with the city and AFT2121 to explore budget solutions to save programs and avoid layoffs.
Going into our sixth session, we still do not have clear and transparent budget projections for the coming year. When Alayna questioned what the district is doing to seek additional revenues, the administration’s response was vague and frustrating. Dianna Gonzales responded that they are “busy updating budget numbers” while John Al-Amin claimed that they cannot forecast budget numbers until May or June! The district continues to update expenses but not revenue, and continues to refuse to consider HEERF funding for it’s most obvious and intended uses.
Tom Boegel presented a spreadsheet showing the departmental impact of the full time layoffs assumed in the FTEF budgets currently being used to develop the schedule (52 full time layoffs). However, this information, which is new to the bargaining team, doesn’t actually match the district’s current instructional budgets. The administration estimated 100 PT layoffs but gave no clear information by department. Tom’s explanation for the rationale behind the cuts was equally unclear, focusing on completions and the numbers of PT faculty in any given department.
AFT remains committed to a solutions-oriented process that will protect our members and the students that we serve. However, the District’s behavior at the bargaining table, namely VC Al-Amin’s obfuscation around the budget are cause for great concern and quickly eroding AFT’s confidence in his ability to protect our institution’s fiscal health.
In Solidarity!
P.S. We hope to see even more of you at our next session this Friday from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Register here. Please arrive by 10:45AM. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. We will start admitting people from the zoom waiting room at 10:45 AM, and will continue admitting up to the start of the meeting. Note that if you arrive after 11:00 AM, you may need to wait until a break/caucus to be admitted. Thanks for your patience.
P.P.S. We are also hosting an ESL Press Conference on Thursday, April 15, from 10:00 to 11:30AM. RSVP here.
This is the first time I’ve attended Open Bargaining sessions and it has been a really interesting and eye opening experience. I have been so impressed by the breadth and depth of our bargaining teams preparedness. I’ve also been shocked, but not surprised, by administration’s gross lack of understanding and disregard for how departmental programs work and the needs of our students. The AFT2121 team consistently refutes the Administration’s claims with clear, well documented arguments. Bravo! I urge faculty to attend these sessions and stay for the post session debrief. Hearing the questions and concerns from faculty from across the college has helped me gain a deeper understanding of the challenges we are all currently facing.
–Jeanne Kearsley, AFT 2121 Member
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