Chartered 1973

In late 1973, twenty-five of the sixty-one full-time instructors became charter members of the new AFT Local 3200 at Ohlone College in Fremont. The list of officers is as follows: President, Carolyn Strickler; Vice-president, Barton Stillman; Secretary, Larry Weiner; Treasurer and Founding Father, Frank Kahl. Major issues faced by the union included:

• Weekly student contact hours (alias class size)
• Selection of a new president for the college
• Consideration of changing to a semester system
• Division vs. Department organizational setup
• Salary and fringe benefits
• 50% Law
• Ratio of full to part-time faculty

Our purpose as a professional advocacy organization was (and is) to represent faculty with common problems, concerns, and interests in bettering education. We instructors are not only the workers, but also the experimentalists and the theoreticians in the field of education. We are therefore determined not to be left out of the decision-making process.

In the sixteen years of our existence certain people have contributed significantly to our local and their efforts should be noted. We would like to acknowledge Frank Kahl who organized us and started our local; Carolyn Strickler who has represented us for several years as President of OFT; Bart Stillman who has spent many hours of his time making sure that due process be followed in cases involving faculty members here at the college; and Larry Weiner who has represented us on both our independent organization and college wide committees.

We look upon our current local independent faculty organization and recall that before it was created, we had a sizeable CFT/AFT chapter on campus. In order to gain the membership of the CTA and CFT groups we informally agreed to organize an independent group, called UFO. We have kept a small CFT/AFT local, Ohlone Federation of Teachers, Local 3200 and may someday expand its base. For now, the United Faculty of Ohlone seems to be the most workable arrangement for the majority of us. A few will maintain membership in FACCC, AFT, and UFO.

(Carolyn Strickler, contributor)