PFT President Jerry Jordan on Partial Reopening Plan for School District Buildings

March 1, 2021

"This Union has led the charge in ensuring that when school buildings reopen, they will be safe for reoccupancy. That's exactly what the plan we outlined today does. It was a painstaking process, but this Union has never, and will never, waver when it comes to the safety and health of our educators and the young people they serve."

 

MFP Task Forces Passes Recommendation on School Funding

Today, the MFP Task Force met to discuss the funding formula for Louisiana K-12 Public Schools. Each year, the task force meets to develop a recommendation for the school funding formula. That recommendation will be considered by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education when they develop their proposal for consideration by the Louisiana Legislature.

Who We Are

Educators

We are public servants working to shape the next generation of citizens, scholars, and leaders. As skilled and experienced teaching professionals, we provide crucial mentorship and support to UC’s most marginalized and historically underserved student populations.

 

Unionists

Our solidarity creates community, making shared governance and collective action possible. When we work together, we can transform bad “gigs” into more stable, full-time and dignified careers. As part of a national union of educators and scholars, we fight to defend public education and our communities. 

 

Visionaries

We envision a better UC, one in which every student has the mentorship and support they deserve, in which institutional memory and experience is valued, and in which every worker receives dignity and respect.

We Teach UC

UC-AFT is fighting to strengthen job stability and provide career pathways for all teaching faculty; to improve wages and benefits so that all teaching faculty have access to healthcare and can provide for their families; and to ensure fair compensation and workload that reflects our training, experience, and contributions to the UC. With your participation, we can together build a more equitable UC, one in which every student has the mentorship and support they need, excellent teaching is valued, and every UC worker is afforded dignity and respect.


Following a historic strike authorization vote—in which members voted with an overwhelming majority of 96% to authorize a strike — UC-AFT entered impasse procedures and began mediation with President Drake’s negotiators. That means that the time for bargaining is over and the time for action is now!

Follow on Twitter @ucaft, Facebook @ucaft, Instagram @uc_aft, and use #WeTeachUC.

Where We Stand

What Lecturers are Fighting For
What Our Union Has Proposed
What UCOP Has Proposed
Where UCOP’s Proposal Falls Short
What’s at Stake
Job Stability
What Lecturers are Fighting ForStable rehiring processes and pathways to career advancements
What Our Union Has ProposedMultiyear contracts; Fair, transparent, and consistent reviews; rehiring preferences; pathway to senior lecturer
What UCOP Has ProposedVoluntary pilot programs and multiyear contracts after third year of teaching offered, but no substantive job security proposal in 22 months.
Where UCOP’s Proposal Falls ShortWithout stable rehiring processes, lecturers suffer from chronic instability, most churned out of UC after their first year of teaching
What’s at StakeAppointment decisions remain arbitrary, inconsistent, and biased, lecturers can’t plan their lives or support their families, and UC students’ education suffers.
Compensation
What Lecturers are Fighting ForImproved Salaries for All
What Our Union Has ProposedSalary scale based on workload and experience with variable raises increasing from 3% to 5%.
What UCOP Has Proposed2021: Lift the bottom of the salary scale 5%; no raises for lecturers earning above the minimum. 2022: Variable raises averaging 1.2%. 2023-2025: 2% raises.
Where UCOP’s Proposal Falls ShortOther faculty and staff are getting 3% raises in 2021. The UC has a $75 billion budget surplus. UCOP's offer won't keep up with inflation.
What’s at StakeMedian annual salary of UC lecturers is $19,067 and starting salary for full-time lecturers is less than county low-income thresholds at 6 out of 9 UC campuses.
Workload
What Lecturers are Fighting ForNo More Unpaid Work
What Our Union Has ProposedReasonable workload standards that reflect service and work outside the classroom hours and credit adjustments when class sizes/duties change.
What UCOP Has ProposedNothing – UCOP refuses to acknowledge the scope of lecturers’ contributions to UC
Where UCOP’s Proposal Falls ShortWorkload is narrowly and inconsistently defined to classroom hours
What’s at StakeLecturers are not respected as equal participants in our profession and as valuable members of our campus communities


Although President Drake’s administration had agreed that we are at an impasse, they have not provided their last, best, and final, implying that they still have room to move. Help us keep the pressure on! Join an organizing committee meeting on your campus.


View the full chart with more information.

And stay up to date with our Bargaining Blog.

What We’re Fighting For

University Council - American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT) is the union representing over 6,800 teaching faculty working throughout the UC system. Our members hold academic appointments as lecturers, program coordinators, instructors, and supervisors of teacher education. We are skilled and experienced educators who often have the same training and credentials as our tenured colleagues and who teach 30% of credit courses at UC, including introductory level and core requirement classes at both the graduate and undergraduate level, that are critical to establishing a student’s academic career.

 

A fair contract for UC teaching faculty would:

  • Protect teaching faculty from mass layoffs in the short-run and, in the long-run, establish clear and transparent  career pathways, thereby transforming teaching “gigs” into more stable, full-time jobs.
  • Support students by ensuring instructional continuity, so that they can continue to learn from the skilled and experienced teachers and mentors they know and trust.
  • Contribute to our local and regional economies by improving wages, expanding access to healthcare, and allowing teaching faculty and their families to establish roots in cities and neighborhoods close to UC campus.

Every lecturer deserves a contract that includes:

  1. Reasonable workload standards that eliminate uncompensated workload and address lecturers’ unpaid service and professional development.
  2. Transparent, consistent appointment processes that bring job stability through rehiring preferences, unbiased evaluations, multi-year appointments for pre-six lecturers, and accessible pathways to promotion to Senior Lecturer for continuing lecturers.
  3. Fair compensation that reflects our training, experience, and contributions to our university and will keep up with the rising cost of living in California.

The February Newsletter

School Funding Next Year

On Friday, the Governor’s team presented his Executive Budget to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget. This spending proposal will be the baseline for budget negotiations throughout the legislative session and is expected to change before being finalized by both chambers in the final days of the session.  
 
 
Being an educator is harder than ever. This year, teacher morale has plummeted

We can’t make this stuff up.

From the Lawyer’s Desk

By Larry Samuel, General Counsel
Jefferson Federation of Teachers
 
We can’t make this stuff up.
 
So, here is the setting. A school board meeting in California is about to begin, by Zoom. Before the meeting, the school board members were talking amongst themselves. Or so they thought.
 
Turns out, the mic was on and the public was already listening in.
 

Monroe Federation Gives Away Free Books

Monroe, LA – This month, the Monroe Federation of Teachers and School Employees (MFTSE) will donate nearly 2,000 books to Monroe City elementary and middle schools in honor of National Reading Month. Donations will begin March 1st and the Federation will distribute at least 100 books to each school.

“We hope that these books will promote reading and student literacy in our schools. The students of Monroe City Schools are our future. What’s a better way to give back than to donate books,” said MFTSE President Sandie Lollie.

MFTSE worked with the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, the American Federation of Teachers, and First Book Marketplace 

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