Action Center
Support the California Tax on Extreme Wealth!
Since the beginning of the pandemic last March, while our families and our communities have suffered gut-wrenching pain and loss, billionaires in our state alone have increased their wealth by over half a trillion dollars.
Pass the PRO Act: Empower workers to organize and bargain
Call your senators now!
Union members have been standing up for dignity and a voice on the job. Please join the AFL-CIO to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. Reach out to your U.S. senators and urge them to pass this crucial worker empowerment legislation. You can call your senators at 866-832-1560 or by using this link.
Tell California’s elected leaders – Invest in community colleges
California’s community colleges are critical to our students’ and our communities’ recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, without immediate action from Sacramento, most of our colleges are facing dire fiscal crises, threatening jobs and undermining our ability to meet the needs of our students and our communities.
Send a letter to California’s elected leaders: Time to invest in our community colleges!
Pass the American Workforce Rescue Act
Support the Biden plan to provide more COVID-19 relief for the millions in need
President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and their team have been working at a furious pace to identify what needs to happen fast — to contain the coronavirus, to get our country vaccinated, to help struggling Americans and their communities, and to start reversing the discriminatory, hate-driven executive actions of the last four years. But Biden and Harris cannot do it alone. Now is the time for us to roll up our sleeves and work together to build back better.
CFT encourages your vote for fellow members at Assembly District Election Meetings!
Deadline extended: Your ADEM ballot must be received by February 3
Update: The deadline to return your ADEM ballot has been extended. All ballots received by Wednesday, February 3 will be counted.
The election for delegates to the California Democratic Party — called Assembly District Election Meetings or ADEMs — is taking place now. The deadline to request a ballot (January 11) has passed, but your vote is important!
Is Georgia on your mind? Volunteer now
Help change the course of our nation!
Now that November 3 has passed, there is one more big push ahead of us to change the course of our nation — the two run-off elections for U.S. Senate in Georgia on January 5.
Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are challenging incumbent Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, respectively.
Count every vote! Post-election organizing to defend democracy
Actions & trainings
Last Friday, the CFT Executive Council unanimously passed a resolution outlining our union’s principles to defend American democracy. The resolution follows a similar resolution passed last week by AFT and highlights four key areas that the CFT believes must be protected:
- Every American citizen registered to vote must be able to vote.
- Every vote must be counted.
- The electoral verdict must be respected.
Get out the vote for Prop 15 and Biden-Harris!
Volunteer now for GOTV phonebanking
Victory is within reach for Prop 15 and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, but we’ve still got work to do! Please sign up for a GOTV shift for both campaigns in the closing days before November 3. Shifts are available every day, throughout the day. A couple hours of your time will make a difference!
Commit to Proposition 15
Where do you stand on Prop 15?
Proposition 15 (Schools & Communities First) will bring $12 billion in additional funding to our schools and communities by making wealthy corporations pay their fair share. Stand with CFT in voting YES on Prop 15 to invest in California public schools, community colleges, and local services.
Tell Governor Newsom: We can no longer afford the failed Calbright College experiment
With California facing an unprecedented budget crisis, we can no longer afford the failed experiment of Calbright College.
Now is the time to take the critical resources being wasted on the misguided and mismanaged Calbright College and invest in our traditional community colleges and the students and workers we serve.
Urge Governor Newsom to end the failed Calbright College experiment
Tell Mitch McConnell: Forcing our cities and states into bankruptcy is shameful and indefensible
The economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to cripple our state and local governments, including school districts and community colleges. Across the nation, as many as 275,000 teachers and school workers could potentially lose their jobs. And in California, K-12 funding could be cut by as much as 15%.
Tell Mitch McConnell: Forcing our cities and states into bankruptcy is shameful and indefensible
Sign the AFT letter: Include investments in state and local governments in COVID-19 recovery
Even with everything our members, frontline workers, and communities have done during this crisis, our students will have even greater needs when our schools ultimately reopen. Public services have been stretched to the max, after years of underfunding. For the foreseeable future, our communities will be coping with the loss of family and friends, record levels of unemployment, and an economic crisis on par with the Great Depression.
Tell Congress: During this pandemic, support our public postal service
As most Americans shelter in place, postal workers are delivering people’s prescriptions, keeping small-enterprises in business and connecting families. The USPS has always been our emergency distribution system when our country is in crisis.
But, at this unprecedented time, that work is under threat. The Coronavirus shutdown is plummeting postal revenues while increasing costs. The Postal Service could run out of money as early as June.
Sign the petition now: Demand personal protective equipment for frontline healthcare workers
We urge all CFT members and supporters to honor the bravery of healthcare workers by signing this petition calling on President Trump to take critical action to get personal protective equipment to our frontline responders immediately.
Add your name: It’s time for a Workers’ Bill of Rights during the COVID-19 crisis
With the COVID-19 crisis wreaking havoc on our economy, pushing millions of people out of work and endangering essential workers, it is more important than ever that we stand together to advocate for working people.
Help us put Schools and Communities First on the ballot!
Sign up today to help gather signatures for Schools & Communities First
CFT members from every corner of the state are gathering signatures to put Schools and Communities First on the ballot, which if passed in November 2020 will bring over $12 billion to our schools and communities by eliminating loopholes in California’s commercial property tax system exploited by large corporations.
California contingents unite to find “Common Ground”
In an event which channels the spirit of Campus Equity Week, leaders from the Peralta Federation of Teachers, San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, UC-AFT, and San Francisco State will host a free conference on the future of higher education at Berkeley City College on October 25.
AB 500 – Paid maternity leave for teachers and school workers
Thanks to the nearly 2,000 CFT members and allies who wrote letters to the governor, urging him to sign AB 500.
We are sorry to report that Governor Newsom has vetoed AB 500. Despite overwhelming bipartisan votes in both the Assembly and Senate, the fierce opposition to the bill from K-12 and community college districts was too much to overcome.
We will continue to fight for educators and school workers who wish to start families.
Support a living wage for community college part-time faculty
Support an 85 percent teaching load
Write Assemblymember Jose Medina today!
Medina introduced CFT-sponsored Assembly Bill 897 which would change the percentage of hours a part-time faculty member may teach up to 85 percent of the hours per week of a full-time employee having comparable duties.
Download the letter and add your own voice!
Time to fix California’s broken charter school laws
Hold charter schools accountable to local communities
Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to hold the charter school industry accountable to our local communities and to all California students. Read more about how the grassroots effort led to the historic charter school reforms found in AB 1505 and AB 1507.