CFT United
Fall 2025
CFT United
CFT United: Fall 2025
Prop 50 Is Only the Start — Our Fight Back Continues
UpFront: President Jeff Freitas
On November 4th, we celebrated a major victory for democracy and working people: California’s passage of Proposition 50, the Election Rigging Response Act. As educators and union members, we know what it means to stand firm against threats — and we know how to win when we fight together.
AB 1028: A Landmark Win for Faculty Equity
Community College Council
A key component of the CFT One Faculty campaign, which aims to create an equitable system that benefits all faculty, is making sure part-timers have some job security and due process.
That’s why it was a huge accomplishment when Governor Newsom signed AB 1028 in October, after a CFT campaign asking members to let the governor know why they supported it.
ECK-12 is Organizing Through Peer Power
Steve McDougall, the president of the Early Childhood/TK-12 Council and a member of Salinas Valley Federation of Teachers Local 1020, started a new set of trainings this year. But these aren’t your typical union ones on subjects like contract bargaining or learning how to run a political campaign. Instead, members are doing professional development trainings for other members.
McDougall got the idea from his work on AFT councils. He thinks this is a way to offer members something helpful as well as a good organizing tool.
CCE Hosts First of its Kind Presidents Retreat
Marc Smith, the Nursing and Allied Health Coordinator at Long Beach City College, has been the president of his local, Long Beach Council of Classified Employees, for less than six months.
Being new, he’s looking to learn how to best serve his members. The first Council of Classified Employee (CCE)’s President’s Retreat on November 7 – 8 at the CFT office in Sacramento gave him what he was looking for with sessions led by AFT trainers on topics such as the constitution and bylaws and member benefits.
Universities Council in Action: Democracy, Diversity, and Union Power
On October 18, about 25 members of CFT’s Universities Council met in Sacramento for a leadership training, Building Diverse and Democratic Union Governance.
The goals of the day included making union work more inclusive, avoiding biases, and being anti-racist, as well as addressing federal attacks on higher education, says Universities Council President Katie Rodger, who teaches science writing at the University of California, Davis.