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CFT succeeds in moving bills out of Appropriations Committee
Legislative Update
The Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committees both held their Suspense hearings May 16 to report which bills would make it out of Appropriations and go to the Floor in their respective chambers.
The CFT was successful in securing the passage of most sponsored and co-sponsored bills out of the Appropriations Committees. Those bills address priority issues for the CFT, including increasing school funding, ensuring accountability for charter schools, and providing support for community college and UC faculty.
Spotlight on transportation services
Jobs returned when contracting out fails, drivers get more training
A recent video that went viral on social media showed a bus driver being attacked by angry parents in St. Louis. Bernard Benson knows how parents can lose their tempers. He has been driving school buses in the San Joaquin Valley for six years.
“A detour makes a driver late and parents get mad because of the delay. It happens all the time. It goes with the territory,” he said, adding, “Most of the time we’re looked at like the good guys because we get kids to and from school.”
Classified members share spotlight with teachers at Centennial Convention
Delegates had a lot to celebrate as they convened for the CFT’s 100th Anniversary celebration in March.
The state’s largest local union, United Teachers Los Angeles, had held a wildly successful strike less than two months earlier. And the union’s block of classified employee members were set to begin the CFT’s second century with their highest union profile yet.
California Senate honors CFT’s 100th Anniversary
On May 16, the California Senate presented CFT leaders a resolution in honor of the Federation’s 100th Anniversary. The text of the resolution follows.
Whereas, The CFT was founded in 1919 to provide a labor union alternative for classroom teachers and celebrates its 100th year anniversary on May 31, 2019;and
Whereas, the CFT is a union of professionals affiliated with the more than 1.7 million member American Federation of Teachers, and through it with the AFL-CIO; and
AB 897: Raising the cap and reducing freeway flying
FIRST PERSON | By Geoff Johnson
The term “freeway flyer” has for years been synonymous with California part-time community college teachers. Since 1968, California part-timers have been legally restricted to teaching a faction of a full-time load in a given community college district, and then generally paid only for their instructional hours.
The rationale for this rule was that it allowed administrators more flexibility to deal with the drop in student sections from the fall to spring semesters, and at the same time, a way to get out of paying healthcare and retirement benefits.
Delegates reaffirm support for part-time faculty voice in shared governance
While the issues of pay inequity, the lack of job security, and access to health benefits are major challenges that plague part-time faculty —collegiality, inclusion, and connection with their campuses and fellow faculty are also important for a part-time faculty member’s long-term involvement with a particular institution.
Key to increasing adjunct involvement and connection in the California community colleges is increasing both the opportunities for and compensation of part-time faculty participation in shared governance.
Paid maternity leave: AB 500 empowers female educators, staff and their families
Pregnancy is a medical condition that requires women to take time off either to deal with the pregnancy itself and potential complications, to recover from child birthing, or bond with a child, which often requires far more than a just the few weeks that many female adjuncts may have in accumulated sick leave. It is not an illness, like a cold, nor a disability like throwing out your back. It is a temporary disability specific to women and needs to be treated as such.
Freeway Flyers: Local action & quick news
Contract gains and remembering Sam Russo
Union mourns the passing of activist Sam Russo
Sam Russo, one of the core group who organized Adjunct Faculty United, AFT Local 6106, died on May 5. He was president of the local for 12 years, and served on the negotiations team for a number of years.
Student loan forgiveness: Bill aims to help part-time faculty in California
AFT wants to hear from those denied application
Update: The governor signed AB 463 into law on October 4, 2019.
Presently working its way through the Assembly, AB 463, Cervantes, D-Riverside, seeks to make it easier for California part-time community college instructors to gain eligibility for the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
Ten things to know about immunizations
1. Measles is highly contagious and deadly.
Before a vaccine was introduced in 1963, there were 4 million measles cases in the United States each year, resulting in 48,000 hospitalizations and 500 deaths. Measles was also a leading killer of children globally.
Creating a movement for charter reform and education funding
Up Front
WATCH THE VIDEO: State of the Union 2019
By Joshua Pechthalt, CFT President
As the school year begins to wind down, our work ramps up. CFT is joining other education unions to push hard to enact bills calling for more charter school transparency and accountability, bringing the decision-making on charter authorization exclusively to the district level, and more ambitiously, enacting a moratorium on all new charters. As Los Angeles state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, the author of the moratorium bill explains, it’s time we put a “pause” on new charters.The effort to bring reform to charters importantly parallels the AFT Fund Our Future campaign that is investing in education.
Jeff Freitas elected CFT President, Luukia Smith elected Secretary Treasurer
Delegates elect new officers to lead the Federation
WATCH THE VIDEO: Freitas, Smith accept the leadership of CFT
Delegates to the 100th Anniversary Convention elected the first classified member to hold a top leadership position in the CFT, Council of Classified Employees President Luukia Smith, as Secretary Treasurer. The man who has held that position, Jeff Freitas, was elected CFT’s new president.