UC-AFT Update - Archive
UC-AFT Update: September 4, 2009
· Calendar of upcoming UC-AFT events at UCI
Schedule of Upcoming UC-AFT Events at UC-Irvine:
(Please mark these dates on your calendar and print to share with your fellow lecturers)
UC-AFT Town Hall on the Budget Crisis
When: Monday, September 14, 3 – 5 pm
Where: Career Center (Bldg 105) – Training Room (across from Starbucks)
This is an extremely important meeting and it is vital that as many lecturers as possible attend.
Please plan to attend this discussion of the budget crisis and its potential impact on lecturers. UC-AFT Executive Director Karen Sawislak, and Alan Karras the UC-AFT Vice-President for Grievances will be present to help answer your questions and get your feedback about the course UC-AFT should take in the face of administration demands.
Please RSVP to mary.ucaft@yahoo.com
UC-AFT Fall Welcome Event
(Two dates below to accommodate teaching schedules)
When: Wednesday, September 30, 5-7pm
Where: Gateway 1010
When: Thursday, October 1, 5-7pm
Where: HIB 137
ALA/UC-AFT Banned Books Week “Read-Out”
Where: Student Center Terrace
When: Wednesday, September 30, 11:30am – 1:00pm
UC-AFT Update: August 24, 2009
· Vote of No Confidence for UC President Yudof today and tomorrow at UCI
The UC union coalition is organizing a vote of no confidence for President Yudof. The system-wide vote, which begins today and ends September 3, will be open to all UC employees, students, and affiliates. The vote has been organized to protest Yudof’s budgetary policies and to reject the idea that instruction and public service must suffer while administrative compensation grows and campus expansion continues. See the attached resolution for the vote of no confidence.
UC-AFT believes that a vote of no confidence is justified due to President Yudof's weak defense of the UC budget to State legislators, his refusal to utilize available UC resources to mitigate the State budget shortfall, his persistent misrepresentation of the fluidity of some UC funds, his silence on the huge losses in UC investments, and his inequitable and divisive approach to implementing the furlough plan. For a more thorough analysis of Yudof's performance during the State budget crisis, please read the August 24 blog post by UC-AFT President, Bob Samuels, here: http://changinguniversities.blogspot.com/
Schedule for Vote:
Wednesday Aug 26 and Thursday Aug 27
Breezeway, Medical Center , 7am-5 pm
Wednesday Aug 26
200 Building, 6:30am-9am, 11 am-1 pm, 2:30-4:30pm
Thursday Aug 27
Campus Flagpole, 10am-4pm
Any UC employee may absentee vote by sending an email to absentee@upte-cwa.org.
UC-AFT Update: August 21, 2009
· Message from UC-AFT Executive Director Karen Sawislak
· Join the Union – It is more important than ever to become a union member so that you’re eligible to vote on important decisions. Please fill out the attached membership form.
To UC-AFT represented employees:
I write today to update you again as to what we know about UC's furlough plans.
Much remains very unclear. We have NOT received any substantive response to the information request we filed on July 23, 2009 on behalf of both units. It is dismaying that UC issued a request to bargain, and then has failed to provide any of the details we need to respond to their request in an informed manner. (To review the information request, please see http://cft.org/uploads/uc/docs/furlough%20plan%20-%20rfi%207-23-09.pdf).
Because of UC's lack of responsiveness, we are still unsure about how the furlough plan will affect our units. One thing we can tell you for certain that furloughs will NOT begin for our units on September 1 (as they will for unrepresented employees), since UC cannot unilaterally impose furloughs upon the people we represent.
Lecturers: We have had some indication that UC may drop its efforts to include lecturers in the furlough plan, because it is very unclear as to how furloughs can be implemented for employees who have only instructional duties. However, this possible exemption for Unit 18 remains uncertain.
Librarians: On the other hand, we believe that our librarians will face layoffs if we do not agree to a furlough plan for them. The Librarian Bargaining Committee has agreed to return to mediation on September 9. The furlough plan will be discussed at that meeting, and we expect to have much more concrete news for Unit 17 after that session.
Vote of No-Confidence: UC-AFT continues to challenge UC's decisionmaking in regard to the state budget shortfall. As we all know too well, the educational mission of the University is being starved, while profit-making divisions of the giant UC enterprise are not being tapped to fund UC's core function of teaching its students. In addition, UC is demanding disproportionate and unfair sacrifices from its lower-paid workers, while it allows money to continue to flow to the most-highly compensated. This is an unprecedented attack on both the work of our units and the careers and livelihoods of our members.
We are working together with Senate faculty and student groups to protect undergraduate education and to force UC to have a more transparent budget and budgeting process.
With other UC unions, UC-AFT is supporting the Vote of No Confidence in President Mark Yudof, which will take place on all campuses between August 26 and September 3. A statement of the principles behind this vote can be view at: http://www.cft.org/uploads/uc/docs/UnionsCallforVote.pdf. We will be sending more information to you about this action very soon.
In addition, UC-AFT President Bob Samuels has been an especially active voice in the call to protect UC's educational mission. For example, see Bob's recent interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education:
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Terminating-California/7690/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
See as well the many analyses of the UC budget and salary structure on Bob's blog, Changing Universities:
http://changinguniversities.blogspot.com/
We will continue to update you as we become aware of any new information.
Karen Sawislak
Executive Director, UC-AFT
ksawislak@ucaft.org
