UC-AFT

Here's an excellent editorial from the March 1 New University.  This was written by UCI lecturer, Brook Haley, who will also be speaking at the UCI rally on March 4th.  

Click the name of the city below to get information about March 4th events taking place there.  

(1) Lower Fees, Rescind Program Cuts, and Stop the Privatization of UCLA!

- Reverse the 32% fee hike.

- Reduce class sizes.

- Stop the push to move classes online.

- End the Humanities restructuring project.

-Do not increase out-of-state enrollments

 (2) End Racist and Anti-Immigrant Policies and Practices at UCLA!

- Change the university admissions policy to increase Black, Latina/o, Native American, and Underrepresented Asian student enrollment.

A broad coalition of students, faculty, and staff from K-12, the community colleges, CSU's and UC are uniting in a statewide day of action on March 4th to protest chronic underfunding of education in California, and to demand restoration of access, affordability and quality for all.  UC-AFT and our state affiliate, CFT, have endorsed the actions on March 4th.  We encourage all of our members to take this opportunity to raise awareness about the impacts of the budget cuts on our ability to deliver the highest quality of instruction and service in the classroom and libraries.

Unit 18 members overwhelmingly voted to extend the Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) for an additional year.  The Unit 18 MOU is now set to expire on July 31, 2011.  Below is a campus by campus breakdown of the extension vote results. 

Basis is the number of members on a campus.  Count is the number of members who voted.  The last three columns show the ballots cast by day during the voting period.

We are writing to you with some important news about the Memorandum of Understanding (“the contract”) between UC-AFT non-Senate faculty and the University.  As you perhaps know, the current contract expires at the end of July.  

The Unit 17 negotiating team reached a tentative agreement with the University with terms that would extend the current contract for an additional year.  Here is a link to the text of the tentative agreement.  Please read on for a full description  by Unit 17 Chief Negotiator, Mike Rotkin, of the agreement and the process for continuing bargaining in 2011.  

Dear UC Unit 17 Librarians,

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley is pursuing an investigation into UCSF accounting practices and their representation of financial reports to the California State Senate and to the media.  This issue arose after former UCSF Dean, David Kessler,  pointed out discrepancies in financial documents.  It has been reported that Kessler lost his job as Dean after he began inquiring into the irregularities.

I want to congratulate all the unions, workers, and students pulling off a  great protest under difficult conditions.  We had over 2,000 protesters at UCLA, and there were some great actions.  Here are a few highlights:

Hundreds of people stopped traffic at one of the main intersections in L.A. and then marched up through the campus.

UC-AFT President, Bob Samuels, was interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now.  The interview covers the protests at UCLA on November 18 and 19.  Bob discusses UC finances and the impacts of regental and UCOP priorities on undergraduate education.

Here is the full Democracy Now coverage including great interviews from UCB, including UC-AFT member and Lecturer, Michael Cohen.