On Monday, more than 40 CFA activists converged on CalPERS’
headquarters, marking the latest action in
our union’s months long campaign to compel the pension system
to end its investments in private prison operators CoreCivic and
GEO Group. However, this meeting played out differently than
previous ones.
Next Tuesday and Wednesday, the CSU Board of Trustees will
convene for its bi-monthly meeting at the Chancellor’s Office in
Long Beach. CFA leaders along with students from Students for
Quality Education will be in attendance to deliver public
comments on both days. We urge faculty members to tune in online,
where there is a
livestream of the meeting.
With our current contract set to expire on June 30, 2020, CFA is
working diligently to solicit input from all members to identify
important issues in successor bargaining. This is central to the
work we do as a labor union and foundational for our work as
faculty in serving our students. However, it cannot happen in the
right way, unless you play an active role in the process, from
beginning to end.
A fundamental element of CFA’s mission is our pledge to promote
anti-racism and social justice and supporting that commitment
through meaningful action. One important way that we pursue this
is by hosting educational workshops for our members that foster
an environment of deep, collaborative learning.
Next week, CFA activists will again elevate their calls for
CalPERS to stop investing in private prison operators CoreCivic
and GEO Group by attending and commenting at a meeting of its
Investment Committee on September 16th. This will mark
the fourth consecutive Board meeting that members will have
rallied at since CFA adopted a
resolution to actively engage CalPERS on the matter at our
89th Assembly in April. For the record, the pension
fund’s total investment in the companies amounts to just $11.4
million out of a total portfolio of $360 billion.
In a welcome development, the CSU Chancellor’s Office
announced last week its plan to provide immigration legal
services to students and employees at all 23 of its campuses.
Funding to support these services was first authorized in the
2018-19 state budget act but the impetus for this plan traces
back to legislation that CFA sponsored in 2017.
AB 21 by Assemblymember Ash Kalra created protections for
undocumented students, faculty, and staff in the CSU system, as
well as the state’s community colleges and also addresses their
access to financial aid, legal representation, and constitutional
right to due process. Following a focused legislative advocacy
campaign by CFA, Governor Jerry Brown
signed the bill into law, paving the way for these legal
services to become a reality.
Nearly 200 CFA members met in San Francisco on August 16 for the
2019 Fall Leadership Kickoff, during which participants worked
collaboratively to strategize on ways to strengthen CFA and
foster a sense of member unity, while deepening our connections
to issues and allies that build our power.
Both at the Fall Leadership Kickoff and at a recent meeting of
the CalPERS Investment Committee, CFA members proudly showed
their solidarity in calling on the pension system to stop
investing in private prison operators CoreCivic and GEO
Group. At the committee meeting, CFA Associate Vice
President Margarita Berta-Avila and others provided a series of
emotional and direct remarks to the assembled members.
On Tuesday, April 30, faculty and students were at the Capitol to
urge lawmakers to #FundTheCSU and support state budget
allocations that would strengthen the People’s University.
To learn more about CFA’s budget advocacy and sponsored
legislation, click
here.
CFA held a reception on Monday, April 29 honoring Senator Holly
Mitchell and Gov. Gavin Newsom for their efforts on behalf of
public higher education.
Both Newsom and Mitchell were at CFA Headquarters in Sacramento
to accept their awards during the reception, which also was
attended by numerous legislators, faculty, and students.
CFA hosted a rally in support of gubernatorial candidate Gavin
Newsom on Friday, Nov. 2 at San Diego State.
The event drew hundreds of students, faculty, and community
allies to the East Commons, where the crowd heard more about
Newsom’s commitment to protecting quality public higher
education.
WEEK OF EVENTS AT SFSU TO MARK 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF ETHNIC
STUDIES: Next month, San Francisco State University will
mark the 50th anniversary of the social movement and
student-led strike that ultimately led to the establishment of
Ethnic Studies as a discipline in the United States.
BILL TO END STATE CONTRACTS FOR PRIVATE PRISONS HEADS TO
SENATE FLOOR:
AB 32 by Assemblymember Rob Bonta would prohibit the
California Department of Corrections from entering into contracts
with private, for profit prison operators on or after January 1,
2020.
Our current contract ends June 30, 2020. In preparation for
successful negotiations, the bargaining team needs your input. We
need to know what issues are important to you so that we can
focus our work at the bargaining table. We also need to know that
faculty are ready to come together and fight, if necessary, to
obtain a fair contract. CFA members will receive an email next
week with a link to a bargaining survey. This survey is where CFA
members communicate to the bargaining team the issues that they
think should be addressed in bargaining.
CFA MEMBERS CELEBRATE LABOR DAY
ACROSS CALIFORNIA: Labor Day is an
annual reminder of the struggles that workers in the United
States have faced and overcome in the last several decades, as
well as a celebration of the power and influence of organized
labor. To commemorate this powerful legacy, CFA sisters and
brothers took to the streets to show their pride on September 2
by participating in several Labor Day events statewide. In
southern California, the CSULA chapter rallied with UTLA members
at the SEIU Kaiser worker rally in Hollywood, while the Long
Beach and Dominguez Hills chapters marched in the Labor Day
parade in Wilmington. Up in Chico, CFA members joined with other
CSU union siblings for a community breakfast with the North State
Labor Federation.
As we approach the end of the first year of a two-year
legislative cycle, a number of important CFA-sponsored and
-supported bills are moving forward, including
AB 331 (Medina) and
AB 1460 (Weber), the K-12 and CSU ethnic studies bills, both
of which were made into two year bills. We will continue our
advocacy for these important bills as they progress into next
year.
