Volunteer to Elect Pro-City College Candidates this Saturday

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/

Posted in E-news Archives

Financial Planning Day, Jan 11 | Retroactive raise payments

AFT 2121 Financial Planning Day – registration now open!!

Eggs marked with IRA, pension, savings, 403B in a nest

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.

Posted in E-news Archives

Financial Planning Day, Jan 11 | Retirement tips and info, sign up now!

AFT 2121 Financial Planning Day – registration is now open!!

Eggs marked with IRA, pension, savings, 403B in a nest

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, you 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!!

Posted in E-news Archives, Retiree Chapter

When will I get paid? Lump Sum Details & More on New Contract | Jan Medical Benefits

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.

Posted in E-news Archives

COPE Endorsement: The Results Are In

AD-19 Endorsement Vote Results

A big thanks to everyone who joined their Committee on Political Education meeting on Tuesday and participated in voting this week. With voting closed, AFT 2121 would like to announce that members have voted to endorse Supervisor Catherine Stefani for AD-19.

Our next COPE meeting will be held from 1:30pm-3pm on December 12th. Be sure to keep an eye out for the official announcement and official agenda!

Posted in E-news Archives

Tentative Agreement vote results are in!

Dear Faculty,

The results are in: City College faculty have overwhelmingly voted to ratify a tentative agreement (see full agreement here) that will bring us a 14% raise over three years and full payback of the salary cuts we took in 2021-22. (For more information, go to your Contract Toolkit at aft2121.org). We’ll share more details on implementation soon. See initial coverage of your new contract in the Mission Local.

94% of faculty voted to make this agreement your new contract, with 79% of eligible voters participating.

The truth is the second number is the most important. So let’s analyze it further:

  • 94% of eligible Full-time faculty members participated in this decision.

  • 67% of eligible Part-time faculty members participated in this decision.

The 27% difference in these numbers echoes the makeup of our bargaining team. We had 12 members of the bargaining team, one was part time, and eleven full-time. We can take important lessons from these numbers and from our collective campaign for a fair contract.

Far too many full-time faculty have felt unheard by their union, and too few part-time faculty are participating in their union.

This is a problem for all of us. The most effective way to make further improvements to our departments, such as making sure they’re adequately staffed, and our contract, such as raising full-time salaries above the Bay 10 median, is for all of us to work together as a united front.

City College needs faculty leadership. You see it in your classroom, library, counseling office, and on our campuses–we need to continue working together to ensure our beloved school fulfills its mission: to uplift students, give hope, and change lives.

We look forward to working with our Board to find a new Chancellor who is truly committed to the mission of City College. We are the largest source of higher ed degrees and workforce training in San Francisco. We are essential, and we need to stand together to ensure we’re treated with respect, and that we have the support and resources it takes to best serve our students.

Posted in E-news Archives, Negotiations

Voting on the Tentative Agreement (TA) starts today!

Voting on the Tentative Agreement (TA) starts today!

Today, December 8, 2023, around 9 AM you will receive an email to your City College email account from ElectionBuddy with voting instructions for the 11/30/23 Tentative Agreement between AFT2121 and the SFCCD. It should come to your inbox, but if you can’t find it there, check your “Clutter” folder, look for emails from invitations@mail.ElectionBuddy.com or do a search in your email for “ElectionBuddy.”

If AFT2121 has a current cell phone number for you, you should also get an alert via SMS. You can complete the vote on your phone or via email. Ballot notifications have a unique identifier that allows members to vote only once and preserves anonymity. This means you shouldn’t forward your ballot notification to anyone else. If a colleague is having trouble finding their ballot, have them contact the help email below.

If you are a current member of AFT2121 and you can’t find your ballot, you can contact aft2121@electionbuddy.com for help. Election Buddy’s customer service desk will assist faculty with voting issues Saturday 12-5 PM and Monday – Wednesday 9AM – 5 PM.

Once you click the link to access the voting page and vote, there is a second screen that allows you to edit or confirm your choice. Once you have confirmed your choice, you should see a confirmation screen like the one below. This is how you know you have successfully completed voting. If you can’t remember if you’ve voted, click the ballot link in your SMS message or email. If you see the Thank you! screen, you’ve voted!

Posted in E-news Archives, Negotiations

City College’s Budget: AFT’s Authoritative Analysis

See AFT’s full Budget Analysis Here for an understanding of City College’s current and future finances, including the impact of the Hold Harmless fiscal freeze in 2024-25.

2023 Contract Toolkit

Spring 2024 AFT 2121 Bulletin

AFT 2121 Spring 2024 Schedule

AFT 2121 Members in Action

Read about

Contact us

Phone: 415-585-2121
Email: aft@aft2121.org.
Address: P.O. Box 591595, San Francisco, CA 94159-1595