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UC-AFT Insider March 2015

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University Council-AFT Insider
March 8, 2015

In this issue: 

  • Social Security Exclusion is an Unfair Retirement Risk for Part-time Lecturers at UC
  • Lecturer Bargaining Begins with National Adjunct Day of Action
  • Petition: Revive the California Master Plan—Higher Ed Can be Free!
  • UC-AFT Statewide Executive Board Elections

Social Security Exclusion is an Unfair Retirement Risk for Part-time Lecturers at UC
UC lecturers working less than fifty percent time have neither Social Security coverage nor coverage by the UC pension plan.  Excluding part-timers from these plans saves the University money, but it costs lecturers in retirement security and disability insurance coverage. Instead of paying the 6.2% SS employer tax, UC forces part-time lecturers to pay 7.5% into their Safe Harbor defined contribution account.  The university contributes nothing.  Please visit this page on the UC-AFT website to learn more about how Social Security exclusion impacts lecturers and what we might do in bargaining to address this problem.

Lecturer Bargaining Begins with National Adjunct Day of Action 
On February 25, in solidarity with National Adjunct Day of Action, UC-AFT held events on several campuses to raise awareness about the affects of contingent employment on the quality of education at UC.  Last week, UC-AFT and UC began negotiations over the full Unit 18 non-Senate faculty MOU. Many of the issues we raised on Feb 25 are central to improvements we will be working toward in contract negotiations.  Check out this page for more info on bargaining issues and pictures and media coverage from Feb 25. 

Petition: Revive the California Master Plan—Higher Ed Can be Free!
UC-AFT has been a leader in the emerging movement for free higher education.  Bob Samuels’ book proposed a redistribution of existing spending and tax breaks to pay for it.  President Obama’s plan would provide two years of free community college with some funding for living expenses, and the State of Oklahoma is seeing the benefits of their private subsidy program that covers educational costs remaining after grant based financial aid. Please take a minute to sign this petition to Governor Brown asking for a revitalized Master Plan and a commitment to truly affordable higher education in California.

UC-AFT Statewide Executive Board Elections
The nominations period for UC-AFT's annual statewide officer elections will close at midnight on March 25, 2015.  Per Article V of the UC-AFT constitution, the current slate of nominees has been posted to the UC-AFT website.  Candidate statements will also be posted to the UC-AFT website at the time they are submitted by candidates.  Several statements are already posted at the link above. The election of statewide officers will be conducted at the statewide Council meeting in Oakland on April 19, 2015.  Per Article V., Section 5. of the UC-AFT constitution, each Local will follow its own constitution and bylaws to elect voting delegates to attend the Councilmeeting.  If you have questions about your Local's process, please contact the field representative assigned to your campus.

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The University Council – American Federation of Teachers is an affiliate of the California Federation of Teachers, the American Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO.