From the California Faculty Association CFA HEADLINES February 10, 2016 · Weekly news digest from CFA • CFA announces strike dates: April 13-15 & 18-19 • Support for CFA’s Fight for Five continues to grow • CFA Chapter Presidents tackle CSU management in local, student media • Faculty gear up for potential strike on campuses • CFA protects faculty rights regarding retirement investments • Faculty Rights Tip of the Week: Writing Rebuttals to Evaluations • Links of the week

CFA announces five-day strike in April

A five-day strike on all 23 CSU campuses will be held in April if the statutory process fails to produce an agreement over faculty salaries, CFA leaders announced Monday during a news conference at CFA Headquarters in Sacramento. On Friday, Feb. 5, the CFA Board of Directors unanimously approved a strike from April 13-15 and April 18-19, 2016 on all campuses, including satellite locations. The strike dates were met with raucous applause and chants of “Strike! Strike!” by CFA members when they were announced

during CFA’s spring Kickoff in Los Angeles over the weekend. The strike dates were recommended by presidents from CFA chapters throughout the state. “CSU faculty are angry…” CFA President Jennifer Eagan told reporters. “Unlike our peers, we have not been able to keep up with the cost of living in California and recover from the recession. Our ask of 5% plus a step increase is not a raise, but a partial recovery from the deep hole that our faculty have been in for over 10 years. We are exerting our right to defend ourselves and our families from economic disaster.”

CFA/Alice Sunshine

Contract talks over faculty salaries for the 2015/16 academic year began nearly a year ago and are now in factfinding, the final stage of the statutory process spelled out in state law.

The factfinding process must be complete and the mandatory 10-day blackout period finished before the strike could commence. If it takes place, the strike, which would halt teaching and all faculty work on behalf of the CSU, would be the largest faculty strike in CSU history.

The CFA Board of Directors also decided that if there is no positive movement by CSU management following the strike, further concerted action will be considered.

Among the labor allies attended Monday’s news conference in support of our Fight for Five were SEIU State Council Executive Director Jon Youngdahl, California Labor Federation Communications Director Steve Smith, and Curtis Washington and Leslie Littman, members of the California Teachers Association’s Board of Directors.

Labor organizations statewide have pledged their support of faculty and to honor CFA’s picket lines should the strike occur.

• Read news stories about the strike announcement • FAQs for faculty and students • More on CFA’s Fight for Five

Support for CFA’s Fight for Five continues to grow

Legislators and labor allies are continuing to support the faculty and our Fight for Five in recent days with statements of support and strike sanctions.

Assemblymember Jose Medina, Chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, said he supports faculty in California’s higher education systems.

From  left:  Kevin  Wehr,  CFA’s  Bargaining  Team  Chair,  and  Assemblymember  Jose  Medina  speak  during  last  year’s  Lobby  Day  at  the  Capitol.  CFA/Niesha  Gates  

“Faculty should be recognized for their important work and compensated fairly for their contributions and support of all students. In a recovering economy, the Legislature has supported the California State University with the intention of supporting students and faculty throughout all campuses,” Medina said in a written statement. “I look forward to a swift resolution without disruption to students’ education.” On Tuesday, Assemblymember Luis Alejo issued a statement of support: “…We need to fight to maintain the quality of education at CSU, because CSU plays an important role in the integration of students who come from low-income and immigrant families. CSU faculty have been patient since the economy crashed eight years ago. They went five years without a single salary increase and received nominal increases in 2013 and 2014. California’s economy has bounced back and people in the private sector are earning more. The cost of housing and other essentials keeps rising. I am proud to stand with the CSU faculty in their fight for five percent.” Assemblymember Jim Cooper said Tuesday: “…Faculty should be recognized for the important role they play in educating our future leaders and they should be compensated fairly for their contributions and support of all students. I fully support the California Faculty Association’s request for a five percent increase in compensation for CSU faculty.” Assemblymembers Shirley Weber and Adam Gray recently sent letters to Chancellor Tim White in support of faculty and urging him to come to a “speedy, but fair, resolution with your faculty to ensure the best quality of education for our students.” And in the Central Valley, the Stanislaus-Tuolumne Central Labor Council granted strike sanction. That labor council covers workers in and around CSU Stanislaus. Strike sanctions have now been granted in every region in which there is a CSU campus. Having a strike sanction means the union labor councils calls on the union members in its jurisdiction to not cross picket lines and support striking workers. Click here to learn more about strike sanctions and support for CFA’s Fight for Five. CFA Chapter Presidents tackle CSU management in local, student media CFA Chapter Presidents have been taking the Fight for Five to local and student media in recent weeks as a way to help educate the community about the need for CSU management to invest in faculty salaries.

On Monday, the San Jose Mercury News featured an editorial written for the paper by Preston Rudy, CFA Chapter President at San Jose State. “[Chancellor] White views the CSUs as businesses that provide educational services. In his mind, CSU exists primarily to manage money and raise it from private sources,” Preston writes. “Brookings (Institution) found that the lowest 20th percentile of households in San Jose earned up to $36,120 annually in 2014. Half the faculty at San Jose State are in, or near, this 20th percentile. Not only is CSU underpaying its faculty, but it is acting like Amazon, Walmart and fast food companies by hiring many employees on part-time contracts — half of the instructors at SJSU. In fall 2015 the median income for SJSU faculty was $39,319 per year. The most highly educated members of the work force are falling out of the middle class.”

Diane Blair, CFA Chapter President at Fresno State, wrote to students Jan. 31 in a letter to The Collegian, stating “In the end we believe we must stand up for ourselves and for the importance of our role protecting the university’s core mission. We think this is an important lesson for our students, too. There is a point when people must say, this has to be fixed, and we will not give up until it is fixed.”

Faculty gear up for potential strike on campuses

The red is spreading. Campuses throughout the CSU system are turning into seas of red as chapters gear up for the potential strike in April. At San Jose State this week, chapter meetings drew about 200 faculty to hear more about the strike. As chapters throughout the state gear up, we could use your help. Contact your local CFA chapter today to learn more and get involved!

And don’t forget to show us how you’re ‘Seeing Red’ CFA! Email us your photos, post them on our Facebook page or send them to us via Twitter.

SJSU  faculty  spread  the  word  about  the  potential  strike.    CFA/Jonathan  Karpf  

CFA protects faculty rights regarding retirement annuity investments An attempted maneuver by CSU management to shift faculty retirement investments without their consent was thwarted recently due to the swift efforts of CFA leaders and staff.

In November 2015, the CSU Chancellor’s Office sent out a letter informing Tax Sheltered Annuity 403(b) Plan participants that the CSU was “making important changes” to the program. Subsequent information (“CSU TSA Contribution Amount Changes Participant Letter”) was sent out by email on January 25, 2016.

CFA President Jennifer Eagan worked with a group of faculty and staff to look into the issue. Some CSU faculty, both active and retired, were not aware of the immediately upcoming changes. Many of those who were aware indicated that they were upset about the changes.

CFA pursued its contractual right to a “Meet and Confer” with the CSU Chancellor’s Office. That meeting was held February 2, 2016, with CFA represented by Representation Chair David Bradfield, Representation Specialist Omar Joseph, and George Diehr, Mary Anwar, and Elizabeth Hoffman from CFA’s Joint Committees on Health & Retirement and Retired Faculty.

As a result of this Meet and Confer, the Chancellor’s Office has agreed to reinstate participants’ control and choices over current 403(b) investments. For active employees, there will be changes, going forward, in investment choices for future contributions to 403(b) plans.

The Chancellor’s Office has agreed to widely disseminate clear information about the revised policies and timelines and will ask employee unions, the CSU Academic Senate, and other groups such as the CSU Emeritus and Retired Faculty Association to help get the information out.

The Chancellor’s Office has also agreed that it will consult with these groups early in the process when contemplating future policy changes.

“This is yet another reason why faculty rights and the collective bargaining process is so critical,” said David Bradfield, CFA’s Representation Chair and a Professor at CSU Dominguez Hills.

Faculty Rights Tip of the Week: Writing Rebuttals to Evaluations By now many campuses are well into their evaluation cycles. The Faculty Contract provision below applies to all faculty undergoing any form of evaluation, but it is especially timely for probationary faculty applying for tenure or any faculty member up for promotion. 15.5 provides that “At all levels of review, before recommendations are forwarded to a subsequent review level, faculty unit employees shall be given a copy of the recommendation and the written reasons therefore. The faculty unit employee may submit a rebuttal statement or response in writing and/or request a meeting be held to discuss the recommendation within ten (10) days following receipt of the recommendation. A copy of the response or rebuttal statement shall accompany the Working Personnel Action File and also be sent to all previous levels of review. This section shall not require that evaluation timelines be extended.” Here are a few things to consider when drafting a written rebuttal to an evaluation:

• You have 10 calendar days from the date you receive the review. This is not necessarily the date posted on the written review but rather the date that you actually receive it.

• Per Article 2.11, when counting the days, exclude the day you receive the evaluation, holidays, and days the campus is closed.

• Be brief and directly responsive to issues raised in the evaluation; match up evaluation comments with your rebuttal or responsive statement.

• Be respectful and keep the tone objective. • Stay focused on correcting facts that may have been misinterpreted by that level

of review. • While your rebuttal may be addressed to the level of review immediately

completed, your intended audience should be those who have yet to read the file. • Have someone proofread your rebuttal for tone before you submit it.

If you need help or have questions about responding to a faculty review you should immediately contact your local CFA chapter faculty rights representative. If you have questions about a faculty rights tip or would like to suggest a tip, please write us at cfa@calfac.org with the subject line “Faculty Rights Tip.”

Links of the Week CSU faculty to strike for five days if contract deal isn’t reached Sacramento Bee The California State University faculty union announced Monday that it will strike for five days across all 23 campuses if an ongoing contract dispute is not resolved by the middle of April.

CFA CSU Contract – Labor WorkWeek WorkWeek first looks at the call for strike action by the 25,000 member of the California Faculty Association CFA of the CSU system with CFA bargaining chair Antonio Gallo who is a professor of Chicano Studies at Northridge CSU. CFA announces dates for 5-day strike The Cougar Chronicle The CFA argue that at their current wages, it is nearly impossible for them to provide for themselves and their families and still dedicate enough quality time to their students. The CSU on the other hand, has said that a 5 percent general wage increase would also mean an equal increase for other bargaining units, resulting in the estimated cost of over $139 million. CSU faculty union sets dates for 5-day strike if labor deal not reached ABC7 Members of the CFA have already voted to authorize a strike. This would be the largest strike since system-wide collective bargaining began in the 1980s. California State University faculty threaten April strike over 5 percent raise demand CBS Sacramento More than 26,000 California State University teachers may walk out of classrooms this spring as they battle the state over wages, calling it a “fight for 5.” CSU faculty prepared to strike for 5 days in April Long Beach Press Telegram Union leaders for Cal State University faculty on Monday announced strike dates across all campuses should they not receive the pay raise they’ve demanded for nearly a year, calling the threatened walkout a historic labor action in the nation’s largest public university system. Cal State University faculty may strike in April LA Times Cal State University faculty may go on a five-day strike in April if their union cannot reach a pay raise deal with system administrators, officials announced Monday.

UC lecturers would get pay boost, earlier mentoring under tentative contract agreement LA Times University of California lecturers would receive a pay boost, earlier job reviews and special funds that can be used for retirement under a tentative four-year contract agreement, UC and union officials announced Monday.

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