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CFA@LB Resolution in Solidarity with UAW Academic Workers Striking
November 14, 2022
Whereas, Our power of workers is the strongest when we unite together as a labor movement as is demonstrated by the inspirational power of four UAW bargaining units authorizing a multi-unit strike.
Whereas, The University of California has engaged in a wide variety of unlawful tactics at the bargaining table, forcing UAW to file over 25 Unfair Labor Practices. The University failed to even respond to some of these charges and PERB has issued a series of complaints against the UC.
Whereas, The UC has failed to reach a fair agreement with UAW 2865, UAW 5810 and SRU-UAW. The University refuses to address the basic needs of its academic workers from unlivable wages that force rent burden on the vast majority of workers, to equality for international scholars, support and retention of parent-workers and promoting gender equity, to provisions addressing the climate crisis, accessibility needs, and job security.
Whereas, This is a historic moment in the labor movement. Academic workers across 10 California campuses voted to strike with a decisive 97.53% in favor. The three unions represent 48,000 workers, making this the potentially largest academic workers strike in U.S. history.
Whereas, Academic workers make invaluable contributions that make the university run including teaching, grading papers, performing cutting-edge research which generates over $6 billion annually in state and federal funding, and driving innovation in areas such as medicine, computer science, agriculture, and green energy.
Whereas, The phrase “an injury to one is an injury to all” is a longstanding labor slogan of solidarity. Whenever management attacks any group of workers, they are attacking working families and communities everywhere. And whenever workers fight back and win — it is a victory for all of us. A resounding victory pushes the boundaries of possibility and builds the confidence of our movement.
Therefore let it be resolved that the California Faculty Association@Long Beach is in full solidarity with UAW Academic Workers’ struggle at the University of California. Be it further resolved, that the California Faculty Association@Long Beach pledge a $1,000 donation to the UAW Academic Workers strike support and hardship fund to directly assist these workers’ bold escalation to win a fairer workplace after the UC has failed to meet their demands and continues to engage in unlawful behavior.
Be it finally resolved, that the California Faculty Association@Long Beach will mobilize its members and community supporters to the nearest picket line [with our union banner/union picket signs] for the UAW Academic Workers’ strike beginning on November 14th, 2022.
CFA@LB response to SUPA
July 26, 2022
Yesterday (July 25), KCAL 9 shared with CFA@LB the “complaint of misconduct” leveled against Dr. Steven Osuna by the Statewide University Police Association (SUPA) in a statement (dated July 12) to the Chair of the CSU Board of Trustees. SUPA’s call on the CSU Chancellor’s Office to formally investigate Dr. Osuna is a troubling disregard for Dr. Osuna’s basic labor and civil rights. SUPA’s statement mischaracterizes CFA@LB and Dr. Osuna’s demands.
From the start, our focus has been on the unequal application of the unlock policy and the need for CSULB administration to collaborate with CFA@LB to 1) revise the unlock door policy, and 2) work with CFA@LB to create a Campus Police Accountability Council to encourage communication, transparency, and accountability between the campus community and the UPD.
We stand with Dr. Osuna. We believe now is the time for CSULB to embrace the national reckoning against the systemic racism endemic in policing in America. We call on CSULB and SUPA to join us in supporting the creation of a Campus Police Accountability Council.
University Police Incident on Campus Involving CSULB Faculty Member Dr. Steven Osuna
University Police Incident on Campus Involving CSULB Faculty Member Dr. Steven Osuna On Wednesday, May 25th, at around 6:00pm Dr. Steven Osuna, associate professor of sociology at California State University, Long Beach, and Executive Board member of the California Faculty Association, was racially profiled and discriminated against by CSULB university police. During the evening of May 25th, Dr. Osuna was in his office preparing for an online advising workshop later that evening for the Sociology Club at Long Beach Community College. The Club had requested an advisor from the CSULB sociology department to speak to them about their courses and campus life at CSULB. Many of these students will be transferring to CSULB in the fall. Dr. Osuna gladly accepted the invitation as a current sociology advisor. This was during his free time, and he did not receive any financial compensation, but he felt it was important to meet the incoming transfer students and make them feel welcomed before they arrived at CSULB. While preparing, Dr. Osuna walked out of his office to use the restroom. He left his office door unlocked but forgot the hallway doors are locked during the summer. Dr. Osuna walked out of his office without his office keys, any identification, or cell phone. Unfortunately, he was locked out. Dr. Osuna walked to the blue light emergency phone in parking lot E10 to call university police (UPD). He was hesitant to call them since he had already had an intimidating experience with them in the past, but he had no other choice. The workshop was about to begin. Dr. Osuna let the operator know who he was and that he was locked out of his office. A UPD police officer and a “ride along” plain clothed individual came to see him. Dr. Osuna introduced himself as a faculty member and explained the situation, that he was locked out, had no identification, but he could give them his faculty ID number. The officer then asked Dr. Osuna to contact his dean, telling Dr. Osuna that they always go through the dean first before opening the door. Dr. Osuna replied that he didn’t have his dean’s phone number, but the officer could easily verify who he was by looking at his profile online. Dr. Osuna pleaded to them, again telling them he was a tenured professor on campus, that if they entered the hallway, they would see his office door was unlocked, and the pictures of his family and him in his office. The police officer refused to help, but eventually called their supervisor who supported the officer’s decision that there wasn’t anything they could do. It is notable that during the call to their supervisor, the UPD officer referred to Dr. Osuna as staff, and not as faculty. Upset by being put into a presumption of guilt, rather than of innocence, Dr. Osuna told the police officer and the plain clothed man that if he were white, they would not have doubted he is a faculty member. To which the plain clothed man smirked, and the police officer said nothing. They said there was nothing they could do and walked away leaving, Dr. Osuna to figure out how to get into his office on his own. Fortunately, one of Dr. Osuna’s colleagues was on their way to campus to also participate in a later part of the workshop. However, Dr. Osuna was over 20 minutes late to his workshop and very distressed. While Dr. Osuna continued with the workshop, he had to apologize to the students and try to explain why he was late. Dr. Osuna’s concern was to minimize the negative effect on the potential transfer students for being so late. Dr. Osuna did not want the students to leave with the impression that CSULB faculty are uncaring for students. Since the experience, Dr. Osuna has shared this story with many white colleagues who have had very different experiences in similar situations; UPD police officers have opened their office doors without first requiring a photo ID or to get their dean’s permission. Obviously, there is much discretion in the application of the unlock door policy. CFA@LB is deeply concerned that Dr. Osuna was subjected to this treatment that can only be described as discrimination and racial profiling while performing his duties as a faculty member on campus. Instead of being able to rely on the campus police for support, Dr. Osuna was forced to fend for himself and rely on his colleagues for help and support. Dr. Osuna’s initial hesitation to call police for help was validated in this instance. A stark reminder that police do not serve communities of color, rather police them. This is another example of why there is a growing call for police to be defunded and abolished on university campuses.
In response, CFA@LB stand with Dr. Osuna and support his demands: 1)The UPD declare a public apology to Dr. Osuna. 2)The UPD, in consultation with CFA@LB, revise the existing unlock policy 3)The Academic Senate, in consultation with CFA@LB, develop a CSULB Campus Police Accountability Council (“CPAC”) composed of CSULB faculty, staff, students, and members of the Long Beach community, nominated and elected by CSULB faculty, staff, and students. At a minimum, the CSULB CPAC would serve as an independent entity that receives and reviews incident reports submitted by persons against the UPD or UPD officers, and after review may make recommendations to the CSULB President. Other CPAC responsibilities would be identified through the process of developing the Council. We believe that forming a CPAC would encourage transparency and accountability of the UPD to the campus community.
Join us for our next workshop Lecturers’ Rights: Surviving the Summer and Setting Up for Fall. This will be taking place Friday, April 29th 1:30pm-3:00pm. Zoom links will be sent out a day before the event.
Co-Presidents: Deborah Hamm and Gary Hytrek VP Membership & Organization: Claire Garrido-Ortega VP Lecturers: Elizabeth Guzik Treasurer: Cat Maiorca Secretary: Sabrina Alimahomed Council of Racial & Social Justice: Alfredo Carlos Assembly Delegates: Steven Osuna and Javier Lopez-Zetina Lecturer Assembly Delegate: Natalie Whitehouse-Capuano Full Professor Representative: Jake Wilson College Representatives:
COB: Craig Macaulay
CED: Joanne Tortorici-Luna
CENG: Daniel Whisler
CHHS: Katie Dudley
CLA: Lily House-Peters and Ron Loewe
CNSM: Elaine Bernal
Coaches: LaTanya Sheffield
CAPS: Shelly Collins
Librarians: Gabriel Gardner
The Long Beach Chapter of the California Faculty Association (CFA@LB) is a social justice driven, anti-racist labor union representing over 2,500 faculty, librarians, coaches, and counselors at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). In light of the recent Long Beach City decision to create a child detention center in Long Beach, the CFA@LB Council for Anti-Racism and Social Justices opposes the center and stands with over fifty community and legal organizations that advocate for the needs of refugee children locally, statewide, and federally.
Recently, President Conoley expressed public support for warehousing up to 1,000 children at the City of Long Beach’s Convention Center, stating “California State University Long Beach looks forward to helping our City create a secure and enriching environment for these children. We have the people and expertise to share to make a difference.” Despite these public proclamations, the university community of faculty, staff, and students, were not consulted or informed of the decision to support a detention center for migrant children. As faculty, scholars, and experts on these issues, we are deeply concerned that our administration did not consult with the campus body before unilaterally making this decision. The campus’ voicing of public support is also reminiscent of CSULB’s collusion with ICE in deporting one of our Long Beach community members in 2016. Our students held the administration accountable in their demands to designate our campus as a sanctuary campus in 2017, which it refused to do. There is no transparency around CSULB’s continued support of deportation and detention, including the current detention of children at the Long Beach Convention Center. We question the administration’s motivation to be involved in the ongoing warehousing of children, as well as the lack of analysis of the structural policies that have produced this moment in Long Beach.
Our expertise warns that relying on large-scale “intake” facilities like a city’s Convention Center to even temporarily hold refugee children is not the best practice; these spaces are not shelters but rather expand the deportation-detention prison system. Specifically, President Conoley’s public support for the use of the Long Beach Convention Center not only authorizes University personnel to act in a social service capacity, but also constructs and legitimizes a powerful public-private partnership that inflicts violence and harm through the use of governmental funds and private contracts. Furthermore, we denounce deploying CSULB’s student population as either free labor or volunteers to aid the detention of children. As denizens, we do not support the City of Long Beach’s expansion of detention, in particular, through the concerted efforts to detain young girls. We do not want to live in or support a city where Indigenous people from Mexico, Central America, and the Tongva Basin are continuously harmed through the expansion of profit-driven and white-centric urbanism.
Research also shows that warehousing refugee children in the Long Beach Convention Center will not create a secure or enriching environment. This move is not only ill-conceived but is also cruel, harmful, and traumatic to the children. If city officials, community organizations, and leaders of the university want to advocate for migrant-and asylum-seeking children, we believe they should join current grassroots efforts to organize against the root causes of forced migration such as the economic instability, poverty, and violence in Central America and Mexico brought on by decades of U.S. intervention and foreign policy.
Economic agreements such as the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and security initiatives like the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI), the Alliance for Prosperity, and the U.S. Strategy for Engagement in Central America have further exacerbated the long legacy of U.S. counter-insurgency in what is called the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador). The U.S. support of the 2009 coup-d’etat in Honduras further militarized the country, increased human rights violations, and created precarious conditions for women, children, and LGBTQ communities. Instead of caging children, we must join in demanding the passage of the Berta Caceres Human Rights in Honduras Act (H.R.1945), which will prohibit U.S. assistance to the police and military of Honduras and join organizations such as the Committee in Solidarity with People of El Salvador (CISPES) in their call to end U.S. aid to the military, police, and destructive economic policies in El Salvador. These efforts are informed by just and humane values, rooted in human rights, and are simply the right thing to do.
We Demand:
That CSULB administration provide transparency by holding a forum to explain its role in, and support of, the decision to warehouse and detain migrant children as an “emergency intake site” at the Long Beach Convention Center.
That CSULB provide transparency with any ongoing relationships and affiliations regarding the use of the Long Beach Convention center to detain migrant children
That local elected leaders call on federal elected officials to rescind the Title 42 border closure and restore access to asylum at the border and any ports of entry.
That local officials follow through on their agreement to make the facility temporary and close it by August 2nd, 2021; end holding children in large-scale influx facilities in general; and that these types of facilities not become the norm or the solution.
That this facility not be staffed by or increase the presence of ICE, CBP, or police/sheriff in Long Beach.
That unaccompanied children not be separated from their family and shuffled further through U.S. detention and deportation processes.
That unaccompanied children be reunified with their families or placed with vetted sponsors, quickly and with high priority, and that detained children receive guaranteed legal representation at no cost to them or their family
The California Faculty Association, Long Beach (CFA@LB) as an affiliate of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is in solidarity with the 5,800 Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama who are currently undergoing a union vote amidst Amazon’s anti-union activities. CFA@LB condemns Amazon’s union busting tactics and deplorable treatment of the predominately Black warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, and its mistreatment of warehouse and delivery drivers throughout the world. CFA@LB stands with our union siblings in the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU).
Amazon is the second largest private employer in the United States and the world’s most valuable corporation. Amazon is also strongly opposed to unions and is mobilizing its vast resources to thwart this historic union vote in order to keep the company union-free in the United States. By mid-2020, Amazon’s market cap increased to $1.58 trillion (surpassing Microsoft) as demand for its services surged during the pandemic prompting Amazon to hire over 500,000 workers. As the global death toll from the pandemic neared one million deaths, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s former CEO, became the first person in world history to amass a personal net worth of over $200 billion. In stark contrast to Amazon’s unprecedented profiteering for its mostly white-male executives and shareholders, its blue-collar workforce is disproportionately Black and Latinx. Amazon’s warehouse and misclassified delivery drivers continue to do all of the hard labor to ensure Amazon packages are processed and delivered on time, yet they are mistreated and disrespected by management. Amazon’s warehouse workers endure a relentless pace of work under constant surveillance in order to meet productivity quotas and performance metrics. Amazon’s “time off task” system tracks its workers productivity in order to ensure workers “make rate” which contributes to alarmingly high injury rates, stress, and substandard working conditions. Such mistreatment has prompted workers to organize for better working conditions and union representation.
CFA@LB is a social justice driven, anti-racist labor union representing over 2,500 faculty, librarians, coaches, and counselors. As a union, we support the right of all workers who are seeking to better their working conditions. We also oppose the increasing privatization of public higher education and Amazon’s rapid encroachment into the CSU system, including the opening of Amazon Campus stores (i.e. the “Amazon at the Beach” store at Cal State Long Beach) along with the widespread use of Amazon Web Services (AWS) at CSU campuses. AWS, the world’s largest cloud provider, powers Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) along with other state agencies and law enforcement entities that criminalize our students and union members.
As a labor union, we understand the divide and conquer strategies that management employs, and we support our union siblings in the RWDSU and our fellow workers at Amazon in their efforts to secure safe working conditions and fair and just compensation. As faculty in the CSU, we also know that many of our students and their families work in Amazon warehouse facilities or as Amazon “gig” delivery drivers in light of Amazon being one of the largest private employers in our state. We advocate for all of our students and their families to have access to good jobs that are free from dehumanizing working conditions, including racism, sexism, and all forms of discrimination in the workplace.
In Solidarity
CFA@LB
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