A New Year Message from UC-AFT President, Bob Samuels

Dear UC-AFT members, 

Last year was a banner year for UC-AFT.  We successfully bargained new contracts for lecturers and librarians, and we played a key role in events that brought the defunding of higher education to the fore in California media and politics.  We have also worked with the system-wide Academic Council on a proposal to increase the use of lecturers on our campuses, and we are leading the fight against a move to high-cost, low quality online education. 

As President of UC-AFT, I was invited to meet with President Obama’s top aids at the White House to educate the Obama administration about the current effects of the state defunding of higher education and the move to a high fee/high-aid model for public universities.  I also met with the Secretary of Labor to discuss the plight of nontenured faculty and the significance of diminished support for libraries and librarians.  

Our defense of public higher education has been coupled with a campaign to make the UC budget more transparent and to show how undergraduate education is being shortchanged as administrative costs increase. I have met with the governor and his staff on several occasions, and I have worked with our VP of Legislation, Axel Borg, on the state audit of the UC system.  This audit and my related research have resulted in a new and fairer system of distributing funding among the campuses, which we hope will help support lecturers and librarians in a more equitable fashion. 

Our VP of Grievances, Alan Karras, and our new Executive Director, Maria Elena Cortez, have worked diligently with our staff to enforce our contracts, and we had major representational victories in 2011.  Yet, our work never ends.  Some lecturers still face layoffs and reductions in their work, and the administration often fails to follow the rules of our MOU.  

As I go around the country, I am always reminded that we have the best contract for nontenured faculty in the country, and we are seen as national leaders in the protection of nontenured faculty.  Still, even with our great contract, we cannot let down our guard, and we have to confront the push to downsize the quality of our jobs.  We will also carry on our fight to improve the librarians contract and to achieve wage parity with librarians in the CSU system.  Mike Rotkin, our VP of Organizing, and Miki Goral, our Treasurer, will continue to work with our librarian bargaining committee on the new contract negotiations, as well as other union matters.  

Finally, we remain dedicated to our work to defend our pensions.  I have been asked to serve another term as the only union representative on the UC Regents Investment Advisory Group.  This positions allows me to meet with Regents and top officials from the Office of the President and has helped to put our union in the center of UC's policy making decisions.  

Leading up to nationwide events in solidarity with public education funding on March 1, UC-AFT is coordinating a campaign to Teach the Budget in classrooms across UC.  Please consider devoting fifteen minutes of class time to a discussion of the impacts of budget cuts and some possible solutions.

 Teachthebudget.com

In 2012, I invite you to work closely with your colleagues in the UC-AFT toward a more fair and just university. 

In solidarity, 
Bob Samuels