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Action alerts

Reinstate UC Davis Lecturer and Choral Director Erik Peregrine!

5/5/2023 Reinstate UC Davis Lecturer and Choral Director Erik Peregrine!

TEAM UC-AFT -- OUR COLLEAGUE NEEDS YOUR HELP!

Generating a civil rights complaint of gender discrimination and a union grievance alleging breach of contract, UC Davis Lecturer & Director of Choirs Erik Peregrine has been laid off after 1 year of their 2-year contract and denied funding for their student’s year-end performance.

Please sign this petition demanding that the Music Department reinstate Erik to the position and work they were promised through 2024. We also demand that the department properly address alleged instances of gender discrimination.

UCLA Spanish and Portuguese...Stop Short Term Teaching Contracts Now

We Demand Unionized Teaching Faculty with Basic Job Security Protections

Our new contract, and specifically, the Transition Plan Side letter, requires that departments give first consideration to existing lecturer faculty before looking to outside candidates to cover courses that will be taught by lecturers. And, if you are reappointed to teach in 2022-23, you will receive a two-year contract. Finally, appointment letters are due by May 1 on semester campuses and June 1 on quarter campuses.

These three core improvements in our reappointment and job stability provisions have some departments scrambling to figure out how to administer reappointments properly. And, in some cases, we suspect that departments are taking measures to avoid the new security in lecturer positions by creating new teaching positions using academic job titles outside of our bargaining unit. If you have any concerns about how your reappointment is being handled, please send us your information using this form. We will follow up with you shortly.

At Berkeley, we are aware of a situation where departments may be forcing many “emergency hires” because they haven’t shifted their budget and planning process in order to meet the new May 1 appointment letter deadline in our contract. We are working with academic personnel and these departments to ensure that there is no abuse of the very narrow circumstances when emergency hiring is allowed.

We are also aware that some departments at UCLA are posting new adjunct professor positions which have time limited appointments. In Spanish and Portuguese, they have created new assistant adjunct positions with a one-year limit, a slightly lower teaching load, some undefined “research” expectations, and an obligation to actively seek employment elsewhere as one of the duties of the job. We are investigating these positions and others like them at UCLA. Where we believe new teaching positions outside our bargaining unit are motivated by a desire to avoid the job security provided by our contract, we will fight them with every available resource.

Please join us in defending our new job security provisions by adding your name to this petition which demands that Spanish and Portuguese at UCLA follow our contract, retain proven lecturer faculty for teaching, and utilize unionized post-doctoral scholar positions for any new combined research and teaching positions. When post-docs teach, they do so with the protections of our contract.

 

Campus Safety Petition to President Drake

Campus Safety Now! Inside Locking Doors and a Seat at the Table

You may have seen news coverage about a man recently charged for making credible threats of committing an act of mass violence at the UCI campus. And, you may have heard that UC Berkeley had a multi-hour campus lock down last week due to a credible threat of violence on campus. UC-AFT would like to express sympathy for and solidarity with members of the UCI and UCB communities. It wasn’t long ago that our community at UCLA suffered a similar experience.

 

Sadly, these will not be the last incidents of threatened or real violence on UC campuses. And, there should be no higher priority for the UC system than doing everything in its power to ensure the safety of those who work, live and learn on its campuses.

 

We call on President Drake to take action to protect our campus communities.

 

In our last round of contract negotiations, UC-AFT proposals included demands for fundamental safety protections such as office and classroom doors that lock from the inside. The University rejected these proposals again and again, and ultimately refused to include such basic protections in our contract.

 

We believe that we, our colleagues, and our students deserve protection now. We cannot wait until the next incident to take action.

 

Media Advisory October 13-14: UC-AFT Informational Pickets on Every Campus

Fair Contract Now Informational Pickets

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: After bombshell report in CalMatters, UC Lecturers to hold demonstrations on campuses across the state Oct. 13-14

Media contacts: UC-AFT President Mia McIver (949-231-7934) UC-AFT Communications Chair Caroline Luce (860-778-8580)

UC-AFT, the union that represents 6000+ lecturers at the University of California, will be holding informational pickets on campuses across the state this Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 13-14, in response to an explosive report released by CalMatters last week. Based on in-depth analysis of UC wage data, employee classifications, and academic codes, the report revealed new details about the working conditions of the lecturers who teach ⅓ of credit courses at the UC, including:

  • About 25% of the lecturers at UC don’t return annually because of low pay and lack of job stability, meaning their students lose the mentors they rely on to guide them through their academic careers. 
  • While UC lecturers are guaranteed a 6% raise after 3 cumulative years of teaching in the same department, the average length of service for UC lecturers is less than two years, meaning most won’t ever qualify for that bump. 
  • While lecturer turnover — also known as churn — has increased in the last decade, the number of UC lecturers continues to grow, raising speculation that the UC is relying on a cadre of part-time workers with few protections to educate its more than 285,000 students and keep costs low.

Read the full CalMatters report here: https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2021/10/uc-workforce-lecturers/

The article highlights issues that UC-AFT members have been raising since their current contract negotiations began in April 2019. Hundreds of members have testified to how their lack of job stability negatively impacts their students and their families. But while the democratically-elected members of the UC-AFT bargaining team have consistently come to the table in good faith with the UC Office of the President (UCOP), negotiations reached an impasse this summer. For thousands of UC lecturers, this means entering into another academic year of uncertainty, struggling to make ends meet without access to health care, job stability, or a living wage.

Having already voted by an overwhelming majority of 96% to authorize a strike, UC lecturers will be taking action to defend themselves, their students, and the educational mission of the UC. At rallies across the state on October 13 and 14 from 10am to 2pm, they’ll be calling on UC President Michael Drake to show his leadership and reinvest in his teaching faculty by signing a fair contract with UC-AFT. Learn more at WeTeachUC.org/Drake.

Information on the locations of actions and media contacts for each campus follows below. Additional questions and concerns can be directed to: UC-AFT President Mia McIver (949-231-7934) or UC-AFT Communications Chair Caroline Luce (860-778-8580).

# # #

UC Berkeley: Informational Pickets, Oct. 13 + 14, 10am - 2pm at Bancroft and Telegraph

Rallies: Oct. 13 + 14 at 12pm at MLK Student Center

Contact: Crystal Chang Cohen (crystal@ucaft.org, 415-961-7962)

 

UCSB: Informational Pickets, Oct. 13 + 14, 10am - 2pm at Storke Tower
Rally: Oct. 14 Noon Storke Tower

Contact: Branden Adams (Adams.Branden@gmail.com, 304-890-6503)

 

UC Davis: Informational Pickets, Oct. 13 + 14, 10am - 2pm at 1st & A (School of Education)

Rallies: Oct. 13 + 14 at 12pm (same location)

Contact: Katie Rodger (karodger@gmail.com, 408-623-2601)

 

UC Santa Cruz: Informational Pickets, Oct. 13 + 14, 10am - 2pm at Base of Campus, West Entrance to campus
Rallies: Oct. 13 + 14 at 12pm at Bay Tree Plaza
Contact: Josh Brahinsky (jbrahins@ucaft.org, 609-558-7470)

 

UCSD: Informational Pickets, Oct. 13 + 14, 10am - 2pm at Library Walk/Silent Tree

Rallies: Oct. 13, 12pm + Oct. 14 at 12:30pm (same location)

Contact: Megan Strom (mcstrom@gmail.com, 530-867-2063)

 

UC Irvine: Informational Pickets, Oct. 13 + 14, 10am - 2pm at UCI Flagpole (Aldrich Hall)

Rally: Oct. 13 at 12pm (same location)

Contact: Andrew Tonkavich (andrewtonkovich@ucaft.org, 949-235-8193)

 

UC Merced: Informational Pickets, Oct. 13 + 14, 10am - 2pm at Main Quad (near Library)

Rallies: Oct. 13 + 14 at 12pm (same location)

Contact: Shannon Garland (shannon.garland@gmail.com, 718-697-9765)

Derek Sollberger (derek.sollberger@gmail.com, 209-500-7316)

 

UC Riverside: Informational Pickets, Oct. 13 + 14, 10am - 2pm at Campus Drive & University Ave.

Rally: Oct. 13 at 12pm (same location)

Contact: Stephanie Ann Wilms-Simpson (Wilmsster@gmail.com, 760-583-3960)

 

UCLA: Informational Pickets, Oct. 13 + 14, 10am - 2pm at Meyerhoff Park (outside Kerckhoff Hall)

Rallies: Oct. 13 + 14 at 12pm (same location)
Contact: Caroline Luce (carolineluce2@gmail.com, 860-778-8580)

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AB 1550: Protect Bargaining Rights for UC Teaching Faculty

AB 1550: Protect Bargaining Rights for UC Teaching Faculty

Tell Newsom to sign AB 1550 to ensure the UC's teaching faculty retain their bargaining rights if and when the University should decide to move our job titles into the Academic Senate.

Regents Meeting Public Comment for Job Stability

Regents Public Comment for Job Stability

UC lecturers are fighting for a stronger contract that recognizes our professional dignity. Now more than ever before, we need fair workload standards that provide UC students with the best possible education, fair compensation that aligns with our training, experience, and contributions to our university, and transparent and consistent rehiring processes that create job stability. 

Filling out this letter will send an email to the UC Board of Regents that will go into public record as a written public comment. Make sure to take action by the end of the day Monday March 15!

Build Power with UC-AFT: Join our Contract Action Team now!

Our Contract Action Team is the heart and soul of our bargaining campaign on every campus.  CAT members network with colleagues and friends around issues and work and ways we can all support our effort to secure meaningful job stability for pre-continuing lecturers throughout the UC system.  Email Josh Brahinsky for details: jbrahinsky@gmail.com

 

 

30 Second Action #4 Email Blast for Job Stability and Career Pathway

June 12-19: Email Blast for Job Stability and Career Pathway

Tell UC decision makers we need real job stability and career pathways now. Precarity for UC-AFT Teaching Faculty is not acceptable.  After a three day strike in 2003, UC-AFT negotiated the Continuing Appointment into our contract.  Eighteen years later, only 24% of our members have Continuing status.  UC administrators wants us to believe that teaching faculty at UC have better job security than most non-tenure track faculty in the country.  First, this is untrue. Second, this is a very, very low bar.  Our proposal for job stability and career pathways would cost the university very little money and it would significantly improve our working lives and the quality of education we provide our students.  Solidarity defeats Precarity!  #WeTeachUC  

Take Action Now!

In Article 7a--Pre-Six Appointments:

  • Sequence of one-year, then two-year, then three-year appointments
  • Clarified academic review process and criteria
  • Reappointment preferences for pre-continuing teaching faculty who have been reviewed and found qualified and competent
  • Reappointment preferences for two years if reviewed but not immediately reappointed

All of the measures above are contingent upon passing performance reviews that certify competence and are simple and straightforward to administer. The University would retain the right to assign available courses to individual teaching faculty who are qualified to teach them.

Our 1/2/3-year appointment structure will save the University time and money by only requiring two performance reviews prior to the Excellence Review for continuing appointment.

The 1/2/3 appointment works like this:

  • The first appointment is one academic year in duration.
  • Upon successful review at the end of the first year, a two-year appointment is granted.
  • Upon successful review at the end of the third year, a three-year appointment is granted. Each appointment thereafter is also three years long.
  • Intermittent quarter-based and semester-based assignments are possible within multi-year appointments, i.e., you could teach spring quarter/semester only for each of three years.

These measures will ensure that UC students are taught by the most experienced and qualified teaching faculty. They will save the University time and money by reducing costs associated with the annual hiring process. They will strengthen UC’s teaching mission and position UC as a nationwide leader in providing non-tenure track faculty job stability and career pathways for teaching-focused faculty.

3 Weeks 30 Second Actions...End Unpaid Work, Job Security, Livable Wages

30 Second Action Week 2: Job Security--No Layoffs During COVID-19

In bargaining with UC-AFT on Friday, March 13th, the chief spokesperson for the Office of the President, Nadine Fishel, said to our volunteer faculty negotiators, “The one thing we’re telling you very clearly is you all have jobs, if you were hired for spring.” All UC-AFT members need to act now to hold UC admin accountable to that promise and prevent layoffs of teaching faculty.

Call your Executive Vice Chancellor today to let them know that job security for teaching faculty is essential 

https://uc-aft30seconds.today

Feb 3 Stand Up For Teaching--Contract Expiration Rallies

Feb 3 Stand Up For Teaching--Contract Expiration Rallies

It's time to turn up the heat and show UC admin that we are committed to getting a new contract that includes to our core demands for rehire and seniority preferences, longer term pre-continuing appointments, more full-time teaching jobs, ending unpaid work, fair workload standards, and middle-class salaries. Join our rallies on Monday, Feb 3....Solidarity Defeats Precarity!