The Academic Worker
Edition I
A message from the Chapter President
Dear Colleagues,
I hope this message finds you well during this holiday season. As the Fall semester draws to a close, the CFA-LA Executive Board (E-Board) has created a union newsletter to provide critical updates about some of our chapter’s organizing work. Our virtual newsletter offers a venue for the many voices on our E-Board, committees, and caucuses to communicate directly with rank-and-file faculty members. This first edition includes reports from our Lecturer Rep, Faculty Rights chair, Membership & Organizing co-chairs, At-Large Rep, and affinity caucus chairs.
In solidarity with the 48,000 Academic Workers who went on strike for a just University of California, we have titled our newsletter The Academic Worker. Their decision to stage an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) work stoppage in response to the UC management’s ever-worsening neoliberalization is historic. We can learn a lot from our union siblings in the UCs. In addition, academic workers at the New School, Eastern Michigan University, Rutgers University, and elsewhere have gone on strike or voted overwhelmingly to stop working this fall. As part of the nationwide strike wave, these job actions should remind all academic workers in higher education that direct action works!
Moreover, in defining ourselves as “Academic Workers,” we can begin to eradicate some of the entrenched hierarchies that exist amongst and between faculty and staff at the university. Doing this is essential if we are going to build a united front against CSU management’s neoliberal agenda. At Cal State LA, we have re-established the University Labor Council, which includes CFA, CSUEU, APC, and the Teamsters, to share strategy and tactics. As each of our labor unions is scheduled to return to the bargaining table in Spring 2023, we have also initiated “Unity Wednesdays,” where we sport our union colors (in our case CFA red) and set up joint information tables around campus.
I invite all CFA members to join us at the first Unity Wednesday of the Spring semester on February 1, 2023, in your red t-shirts. For our contract reopener to be successful, we will need to be creative and continually escalate our tactics in order to win raises that outpace inflation, COLAs, and other essential improvements to our workload and working conditions. It is only when we fight that we win!
In Unwavering Solidarity,
Anthony Ratcliff
Chapter President, CFA-LA
The Lecturers’ Council
Leda Ramos, Lecturers’ Council Representative
Lecturer Council representation and advocacy has been amplified to include spaces including Queretaro, Mexico, where Elisabeth Houston (English) and Leda Ramos (Chicanx/Latinx Studies) presented “Black/Brown Solidarity & Labor Work” at the 2022 Congreso de COCAL (Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor) and Lecturers Olga Garcia, Nora Cisneros and Leda Ramos in Sacramento walking in solidarity with CFA in a historic march with the United Farm Workers. Ramos was also elected Tri-Chair of the statewide CFA Chicanx/Latinx Caucus at the CFA 95th Fall Assembly. On campus we continue to strengthen lecturer rights advocacy via education workshops, Lecturers’ Council Town Halls, Academic Senate and Senate Executive Committee, and statewide Lecturers’ Council meetings. Next Spring 2023, a newly formed Lecturers’ Council Committee will work on Lecturer union demands and guidelines for our LA campus to improve our dignity and labor rights.
Faculty Rights (and Cal State LA Wrongs)
Molly Talcott, Faculty Rights Chair
In our chapter’s faculty rights work, we problem-solve on unique issues, help faculty file grievances, as we also discern broad patterns of harm and educate faculty about our rights. Our labor in faculty rights often occurs behind the scenes, given our duty of fair representation as defined by HEERA, and as outlined by our CFA Representation Policy, which requires confidentiality. Your trust of our faculty rights team is sacred, and we honor it steadfastly. This term, we have won several monetary settlements for faculty related to workload and lecturer appointment violations. We have continued to advocate for humane working conditions and tenure-line appointments for counselor faculty, a campaign that continues – and that marks this Fall term’s biggest “Cal State LA Wrong” in our book. We ask that instructional faculty continue to stand with counselor faculty in the new year. Their numbers are small among the faculty, yet their work is vital to students’ abilities to learn and grow intellectually and emotionally. Stay tuned for a solidarity campaign in the new year! As regards “know your rights” education, this Fall we held workshops on RTP and range elevation (in partnership with the Lecturers’ Council), and next term, we will offer workshops on periodic reviews, lecturer evaluations, and rebuttals. Have a concern or possible grievance? Contact Molly (mtalcott@calfac.org) and Marcelle (malvarado@calfac.org). Solidarity is a verb – even when we in faculty rights (sometimes) do it quietly!
Students for Quality Education
SQE started the semester off by addressing the several issues on campus that many students and faculty have been voicing. From no A/C’s in classroom during a heatwave, unsanitary conditions in the dining halls, to long wait times to speak with counselors, to addressing the ASI president for his false promises towards students and his multiple Title IX allegations. SQE plans to continue fighting for students next semester by hosting meetings, creating informational flyers on what is happening on campus, tabling, and looks forward to organizing alongside faculty for better working conditions for student learning conditions!
CAPS Update
Daniel Benitez, CAPS Counselor Faculty
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) has continued its commitment to provide services and support to students despite the retention issues in CAPS. In lieu and in the absence of the CAPS psychiatrist, students have been linked to external resources and psychiatry to ensure their needs are being met. In addition to the mentioned linkage, CAPS Counselors and staff have continued to support students and provide services through various mediums (in-person and remote) to increase accessibility, availability and ensure student comfort and safety. Although group therapy and other programming was paused during the semester, CAPS will resume these services in the upcoming semester and look forward to continuing to support students. CAPS counselors continue to advocate for an increase in counselor faculty, tenure line counselors and safe working conditions.
Highlight: Cal State LA’s counseling center has a retention problem by former CAPS Counselor, Jeniffer Reyes
Library News
Library Faculty Collaboration
In December 2022, the library welcomed two lecturer librarians. The positions were created because CFA and tenure-track library faculty won a grievance for excessive workload and zero reduction in assignment during the first two years. The librarians worked with CFA-appointed counsel to negotiate a lump sum payment as well as research days that do not expire. We protect faculty rights and safe workplaces and fight for social justice at Cal State LA.
The CFA 95th Assembly
Libby Lewis, At-Large Representative
The CFA 95th Assembly brought important discussion of the problem of policing on our campuses. The “Alternatives to Policing Workgroup” strategized how to get the word out for more participation in solutions-based discussions and actions. The link below is an historicizing of policing and administrative attempts to reframe the issue of policing on our college campuses using U.C. Riverside as an example. The author of this effort is Dylan Rodriguez, a professor in the Department of Media and Cultural Studies at U.C. Riverside. I invite everyone to connect with this strategy group working on ways to confront the issue of policing. Here’s the link: http://utotherescue.blogspot.com/2021/06/a-public-response-to-ucr-chancellors.html
Membership + Organizing
Akhila Ananth & Oli Rodriguez, Executive Board Officers
This semester, the Membership + Organizing (M+O) team has been growing! Over the Fall 2022, we visited 12 departments’ faculty meetings to get feedback from current members and recruit new members. We are 88% toward our Bargaining Power Goal, or super majority, for membership. This would put us in an excellent position to make demands of our administration. Expect to see more of Akhila, Oli, and everyone else supporting M+O efforts in the semester to come!
Chairs’ Caucus
Wai Kit Choi & Michael Willard
In fall semester the Chairs’ caucus met twice to share and compare information across colleges. We discussed a number of topics that affect students’ learning conditions and faculty working conditions. Chairs shared their desire for a return to the regular meetings with the President and Provost that had occurred every semester before the pandemic began. The caucus is gathering information about the pace of curriculum approval processes, between colleges, and in comparison to other CSU campuses, in the hope that it can be used in consultation with Academic Senate and University administration to speed up approvals, which will in turn help students students to take classes they need to graduate and provide them with the most current information from professors (especially newly hired tenure-track professors) who are able to teach in their area of expertise. Staff shortages and the University’s telework policies also have impacted the ability of chairs to serve students and faculty in their departments. Chairs also expressed concern about unclear policies for sharing revenues from continuing education (PaGE) course offerings.
THE COUNCIL FOR RACIAL & SOCIAL JUSTICE - Los Angeles
Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Caucus
Members of the APIDA Caucus have attended the CFA-APIDA Caucus via Zoom during the year. We were happy to meet other members APIDA Caucus sponsored event at the end-of-semester luncheon on December 2 at Capital Seafood, a dim sum restaurant in Monterey Park adjacent to campus. Members who attended came from different colleges; they socialized and exchanged their experiences at Cal State LA. The luncheon brought together faculty who probably would not have met on campus, or via Zoom, and it was a great way to build our community.
This year, we won important caste protections in our faculty contract, and held a presentation at the Ethnic Studies Conference in November. We look forward to continue in-person and virtual gatherings next semester.
Highlight: "As a Hindu, I can’t stay silent about injustices in India — committed in the name of our faith” LA Times by Associate Professor Akhila Ananth.
Black Caucus
The Black Faculty Caucus held a luncheon in October 2022 to welcome new faculty colleagues, celebrate those who had recently completed their RTP files, and connect with old friends and new acquaintances from around campus. We had a wonderfully catered meal from Caribbean Gourmet in San Gabriel. As this was our first in-person gathering since the pandemic, it was nice to hang out with other Black faculty colleagues we rarely encounter. That afternoon, we also received copies of the just published Black Campus Climate Study drafted by Professors Libby Lewis, James Thomas, and Serie McDougal from the Department of Pan African Studies, and Tanesha Collier from the Office of Graduate Studies. While the report documented the depths of anti-Blackness experienced by Black faculty, staff, and students at Cal State LA, it also highlighted the need for us to create more Black-affirming spaces on campus. Our Black Faculty Caucus luncheon was precisely the kind of affirming space we must keep building. With that in mind, we plan to hold another luncheon and other social events in Spring 2023 and invite all Black faculty members to attend.
Highlight: New study finds Black Cal State LA students feel ‘isolated,’ and racism is a ‘major obstacle’
Chicanx/Latinx Caucus
This Fall we focused on three community-building events: the 52nd Chicanx Moratorium with Centro CSO in Boyle Heights; marching with the UFW in Sacramento for farmworker rights to organize freely for a union; and on-campus support for Latinx faculty to honor our MA graduate students in Chicanx/Latinx Studies with a holiday meal of gratitude for programming labor in the College of Ethnic Studies. More organizing on campus this Spring for equity and hiring Latinx faculty absent in departments and solidarity action to counter anti-Blackness on campus.
LGBTQIA+ Caucus
The LGBTQIA+ caucus met in November to discuss queer-trans life on campus, among our students, and also in our own personal lives. Conversations ranged from intersectionality to the erasure of Black and brown voices within dominant LGBT narratives. We discussed the possibilities of gatherings in spring 2023 for our caucus. Retreats, student-faculty panels, art and culture gatherings, and increased commitments to supporting justice driven work were a few of the ideas discussed. Connect with us on Discord: https://discord.gg/KcfkYQGEMp
Women & Non-Binary Caucus
In the Fall 2022 semester, the Women's and Nonbinary Faculty Caucus held online meetings to discuss the campus climate around gender and sexuality at Cal State LA. Among topics discussed were gender harassment by faculty colleagues and administrators, sexually and racially hostile climates in departments and colleges, and gender pay inequities between faculty. These conversations among union members are taking place parallel to CSU system-wide Title IX assessment that is being overseen by the Board of Trustees. Faculty are organizing for institutional transparency, accountability, and change around gender and sexual violence and inequity at our university. In the Spring 2023 semester, the Women's Caucus will join forces with the LGBTQIA+ Caucus to continue this work. Women and LGBTQIA+ faculty who are CFA members are encouraged to attend our next joint caucus virtual meeting on Monday, February 20th at 6:30 pm (details to come).
White Antiracist Committee (WARC-LA)
CFA’s ongoing process of becoming an antiracist and social justice union led to the creation of WARC, the white antiracist committee, a space for antiracist white faculty to discuss the practice of antiracism in our lives, in our union, and on our campuses. We act in the spirit of self- and social transformation, in a conjoined effort to weaken white supremacy culture and advance our collective liberation in its place. Check out WARC’s Call to Action from the summer of 2020. Statewide WARC meetings occur monthly (email Jessica at jlawless@calfac.org to join the monthly meetings and listserv). At Cal State LA, WARC-LA was on hiatus last semester, with plans to resume meeting in Spring 2023. Email Molly (mtalcott@calfac.org) if you would like to join our efforts to challenge racism and policing at Cal State LA, in solidarity with our BIPOC colleagues and students.
Don’t be funny with my money!
To our surprise, Covino announced his retirement months after receiving a $102,000 raise, most as a retroactive "equity" adjustment, and making well over the Governor of California. While the CSU public relations machine tries to convince you that Covino was the best thing ever for Cal State LA, we believe he will be remembered for his persistent anti-Blackness and failed leadership.
On May 10th, the Academic Senate at Cal State LA, voted no confidence in President Covino. The vote responded to the violent forced removal of esteemed campus and community leader Dr. Melina Abdullah from a May 1st campus event.
In response to Covino's retirement, Abdullah noted that:
"Bill Covino has a nine-year legacy of anti-Blackness and failed leadership that has led to toxicity and violence at Cal State LA. His resignation is really a firing by the people and a tremendous win for the students, faculty, staff, community, and labor unions that have been fighting to hold him accountable."
Professor Abdullah's forced removal was not the first-time campus police were called to intervene during a non-violent disagreement involving Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) students, faculty, and staff.
Covino's pattern of anti-Blackness includes:
Stolen Central Emergency Response Funds
Dismantled Counseling & Psychological Services
Campus Police Violence
91% vote of no confidence by faculty
University resistance to an Ethnic Studies requirement in 2014
Admittance of alt-right hero Ben Shapiro on campus in 2015, where he targeted Black students as well as gay and trans students.
Refusal to meet with Black faculty, staff, students, and the community in 2020 following the killings of George Floyd and other Black people at the hands of police.
Covino's tenure at Cal State LA reflects the systemic anti-Black racism at CSU that the California Faculty Association has called attention to on numerous occasions.
“Covino disrespected faculty and students by governing from the top down with no regard for shared governance, student needs, or faculty expertise. We deserve better!”
Beth Baker, CFA- LA Vice President
What about us?
In February 2022, faculty ratified the CFA- CSU Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which is current until June 30, 2024. Faculty received two General Salary Increases (GSI): 2021 - retroactive 4% increase and 2022 - 3% increase. Other increases, such as Service Salary Increases (SSI) and a Post-Promotion Increase (PPI) are also included in this contract cycle (per Article 31: Salary).
Here’s what you need to know for the next GSI. The contract will reopen for negotiations of the July 1, 2023 GSI, and we must go back to the bargaining table to negotiate this increase. In addition to salaries, the contract will reopen for negotiations on three other contract articles: campus health and safety, expanded parental-caregiver leave and workload.
In order to give the CFA bargaining team the power they need at the table to negotiate with the CSU, faculty will need to unite and fight. In the spring semester, look for the bargaining survey in your inbox, respond to it, and share it with all your colleagues! All of our voices — and solidarity actions (like wearing red on Unity Wednesdays!) — matter as we build a campaign for the best possible contract for next year’s reopener!
We asked: What would you do with with $102K? [VIDEO]
Labor Solidarity Corner
Relevant and recent labor highlights!
UAW Local 2865 President, Rafael Jaime, addresses the House of Labor, with the LA Federation of Labor. [ VIDEO ]
This Year's Biggest Strike Is by 48,000 Academic Workers at the University of California: https://labornotes.org/2022/11/years-biggest-strike-48000-academic-workers-university-california
After Three and a Half Weeks, New School Strike Ends With Tentative Agreement: https://www.chronicle.com/article/after-three-and-a-half-weeks-new-school-strike-ends-with-tentative-agreement
Eastern Michigan University faculty ratify contract in deal reached after brief strike: https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2022/09/eastern-michigan-university-faculty-ratify-contract-in-deal-reached-after-brief-strike.html
Strike talk heats up among Rutgers faculty unions; national labor leaders signal their support: https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2022/12/rutgers-union-members-threaten-talks-of-a-strike-national-labor-leaders-signal-their-support-00072594
Labor Training & Education
If you are interested in participating in any trainings below, please contact CFA-LA at cfa_la@calfac.org for registration details.
CFA Equity Conference, “Co-conspiring for an Equitable Future: Building the Social Justice Bridge,” March 8-11th, 2023 (virtual)
Los Angeles Troublemakers School: March 11th, 9AM at LA Trade Tech (in-person)