Welcome to Spring 2023
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
I extend warm greetings and best wishes to you for the Spring 2023 semester, and hope you had a relaxing and refreshing winter break. Writing this welcome message has been challenging. As much as I would have liked to get into campus issues right away, too much has transpired around us for me to ignore. On behalf of our CFA Los Angeles Executive Board, I want to express our deepest condolences to the Asian and Asian American community in and around Cal State LA following the tragic mass shooting at Lunar New Year festivities in Monterey Park. It is particularly heartbreaking to learn that one of our faculty colleagues and students lost family members during the Monterey Park massacre. Leaders from our APIDA Caucus will be issuing a more detailed statement about the incident early this week. In the meantime, please take care of yourselves and each other. Our hearts go out to you, especially our APIDA siblings, and everyone impacted directly or indirectly by the mass shooting.
I also want to send my condolences to the families of Keenan Anderson, Takar Smith, Oscar Sanchez, Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran, Tyre Nichols, and the several other Black and Brown people killed by law enforcement in the first month of 2023. Their deaths come on the heels of police killing 1,176 people last year, making it the deadliest year on record. Even though Tyre Nichols’ violent murder at the hands of several Memphis police officers is currently gaining national and international attention, we should not forget that LAPD officers killed three people in the first week of the new year. Keenan Anderson was a 10th grade English teacher at Digital Pioneers Academy in Washington DC, who LAPD officers tased to death following a traffic accident on his visit to LA. Equally tragic are the killings of Takar Smith and Oscar Sanchez, both of whom were experiencing mental health crises when LAPD violently confronted them.
Grounded in our anti-racism and social justice (ARSJ) framework, CFA has advocated for the divestment from policing and investment in mental health support and other life-affirming alternatives to police. With these tragedies in our hearts, we must continue the fight for anti-racism and social justice on and off campus. At Cal State LA, this means improving the health and safety of all faculty, students, and staff, which will be one focus of our upcoming contract reopener. In addition, during collective bargaining we will address the need for significant pay raises, workload relief, and increased leave for parents and caregivers. I encourage you to actively participate in ongoing, crucial organizing this Spring and next Fall to win a fair and just contract.
Updates on Fall Organizing
At the chapter level, Molly Talcott, Leda Ramos, Marcelle Alvarado, myself, and others on the EBoard have been addressing significant workload, appointment, and RTP issues of importance to our Tenure-line, Lecturer, Counselor, Librarian, and Coaching faculty colleagues. The administration usually counts on faculty members to say and do nothing, to imagine our challenges are individual and one-off. Our commitment to our students is undeniable; however, this does not mean we should allow the administration to exploit us. Remember, our working conditions are the learning conditions of our students. We can push back and strategically document and counter the upward trend in the institution running full speed over faculty rights by filing grievances and demanding that management responds. An important reminder is faculty ALWAYS have the right to have CFA union representation when meeting with administration. If you are asked to consider meeting without your union, or the administration refuses to meet with you because you want your union present, know they are violating your rights.
We organize and fight for our rights daily, even if it isn't always evident. Be it for individual concerns of members or all of us; we are ensuring that the new contract is being adhered to. This means addressing the following:
Lecturer rights especially around entitlements/work assignments
Librarian and Counselor rights around work modality
Contracts for coaches
Meeting the national standard of Counselor to student ratio
Salary inversion and compression in stark contrast to top CSU presidents giving themselves outrageous raises
Race and gender pay equity
Parental care
The need to actively mobilize accessibility needs for our disabled faculty, staff, and students (this is not done nearly enough)
Alternatives to policing
Addressing the severe underrepresentation of BIPOC faculty throughout the CSU
Protecting our LGBTQIA+ faculty, students, and staff
Back at the Table: Bargaining Reopeners
As you know, in early 2022, CFA members ratified a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that included several vital wins and improvements. Though the entire contract is in effect until June 30, 2024, beginning in May 2023, the Bargaining Team will return to the bargaining table with the CSU for an “Economic Re-opener” to continue bargaining only on issues relating to Salary and specific items in the CBA. These include Article 20 – Workload; Article 23 – Leave with Pay; Article 31 – Salary for 2023-2024 academic year; and Article 37 – Health and Safety. In addition, the administration is also reopening Article 32 – Benefits.
You should recall from our last round of bargaining – or all the way back to our Fight for 5 in 2016 – that collective bargaining is not a process that happens overnight. It also requires not just research and strong arguments but a whole lot of collective strength in numbers and solidarity amongst the CFA membership. As such, we anticipate that this Bargaining for the Reopener could very well continue into the 2023-2024 academic year, and it is critical that we all prepare to organize, advocate, and agitate – as we continue our fight as a faculty Union for Rights, Respect and Justice for all Unit 3 Members!
To that end, we are planning several organizing opportunities that we urge you to join. First, February 1st from 12:30-2:30 is Unity Wednesdays – led by our Membership + Organizing team (Akhila Ananth and Oli Rodriguez) – where we will be tabling with our union siblings from CSUEU in front of King Hall. We ask you to wear a CFA or another red shirt to show your solidarity with the Union. Second, we are planning a hybrid General Membership Meeting on Thursday, February 16 from 3:15-4:45 pm (room TBD). For members attending virtually – a zoom link will be shared next week. This will be one of many opportunities to let the administration and campus community know that we need livable salaries, manageable workload, alternatives to policing, parental/caregiving support, and representation of BIPOC faculty, to name a few timely issues.
Third, if you would like to get more involved, consider volunteering/running to be a Department Rep or Contract Action Team (CATeam) leader! Dept. Reps’ responsibilities include serving as a liaison between CFA and your department, attending monthly Department Rep meetings, identifying members to participate in CFA-sponsored activities, and helping recruit new CFA members. CATeam leads will mainly be responsible for communicating with a specific group of members to make sure they are fully informed and engaged in the Union contract campaign. To find out how to become a Department Rep or CATeam leader contact me at aratcliff@calfac.org or Marcelle (MAlvarado@calfac.org).
With each of you, we are stronger – our collective actions will convey our strength as 29,000 faculty to the CSU administration. Together, we are CFA – and we are the CSU!!!
In Solidarity,
Anthony Ratcliff, Ph.D.
Chapter President
On Behalf of the CFA-LA Executive Board
Join us for Unity Wednesdays
On Wednesdays we wear… our union gear! Join us and our labor siblings, CSUEU, Teamsters and APC as we sport our union colors and gear. Don’t have any? Visit our table outside of King Hall, grab some gear, snacks or coffee. If you have any questions, please email: cfa_la@calfac.org.
