Meet the Challenges of Today: Organizer Training

Expanding and strengthening your community to advocate for what you love and need–that is organizing. Whether it’s for your contract, the safety and wellbeing of your students, or the mission of public ed, organizing this coming academic year will be important.

So it makes sense for all faculty to sharpen our organizing skills. The Bay Area Troublemakers School is put on by Labor Notes and has long been a go-to gathering for those new to organizing and those with a long list of campaigns under their belt.

When: Saturday, June 14, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Where: Oakland Technical High School

Workshops include:

• Secrets of a Successful Organizer
• New Organizing
• Assertive Grievance Handling
• Running for Union Office
• Introduction to Open Bargaining
• Open Bargaining
• Federal Workers Fight Back
• Labor and Climate
• Race and Labor
• … and more!

Some workshops will be conducted in Spanish. Registration includes event registration, light breakfast, and lunch.

Register here or contact Robin Pugh (rpugh[at]aft2121.org ) for scholarship info.

Student Debt Relief & Repayment Status

With recent attacks on many higher education programs and funding, City College faculty with student debt may be wondering what is going on. AFT national will be giving a webinar update for members on navigating the current system and the fight for something better.

When: Thursday, May 8, 3 PM PST| Register here!

Topics:

• Navigating student loan repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).
• Restarting payments after the pause.
• Understanding your rights under Income Driven Repayment plans.
• Learning what the AFT is doing in the courts and in Congress to defend affordable education and fight back against harmful policies.

For more than a decade, the AFT has been fighting to fix the broken student debt system and stop loan servicers from preying on our members. After hosting dozens of debt clinics, and reaching major settlements with Navient and the Department of Education, we have seen more than 1 million teachers, healthcare workers and other public servants get the life-changing promise of Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

This is union work, and the AFT will not stop until every public employee has access to affordable payment plans that count toward PSLF and all young people have affordable paths to opportunity. In July, when it became clear that loan servicer giant MOHELA cared more about profits than people’s economic future, the AFT filed a lawsuit. Last month, when we saw that the Trump administration had taken the application for the only affordable plan, Income Driven Repayment, off the Financial Student Aid website, we went straight to court. Within weeks, the application was back online, and FSA promised to begin processing applications this week.

But the fight continues. The proposed reconciliation bill, which is making its way through Congress right now, takes a hatchet to American opportunity by slashing $330 billion in college affordability. The AFT is fighting to ensure kids don’t lose the opportunity of middle-class, working-class and impoverished Americans to go to college so that billionaires can get tax cuts.

Unemployment Insurance Workshop for Part-time Faculty, Thurs 5/15 @ 4:30 PM

Part-timers at CCSF are eligible for unemployment benefits in the summer even if assigned a class in the fall. If you teach part time at City College and you haven’t gone through this process before (or even if you have!), you should take this workshop.

The Unemployment Insurance Workshop will guide part-time faculty through the online unemployment filing process, for both new and reopened claims. How to deal with phone interviews, denials, and appeals will also be covered.

Presenter: John Govsky, a CFT vice president, has many years of experience researching, writing about, and assisting contingent faculty with unemployment issues.

When: Thursday, May 15, 4:30pm – 6:00pm

Register here!