The Audacity of Union - Part Deux

By David Yancey, FA AFT 6157, President

No, this isn’t about a movie sequel about a plane crash starring Leslie Nielson or SWAT team hi-jinks and has nothing to do with Charlie Sheen. It is not about Hollywood satire an attempt to make fun of serious issues. It is about you and your union and what we have done to further your interest and the influence of this union.

About two years ago I wrote an article for the union newsletter titled The Audacity of Union. The point of the article was to describe the change in how our union was evolving into a newer more progressive type of union (not your father’s union). I had been motivated to write that article by a book I had just read about a new style of politics and public service being described by a fresh new face on the political scene, then Senator Barack Obama called the Audacity of Hope.

Changing Values of our Union

In that article I tried to describe how this book and the ideas it advanced were in many ways similar to how we saw the changing values, tactics and priorities of unions in our district and around the country. I described how our union was trying to work with our administration in more positive pro-active ways, not in the traditional, antagonistic styles of management

versus labor of the past that had been the history of our district.

The purpose here is to update you on the progress of our movement toward a new style of progressive union/management/community orientation philosophy. I am happy to report there are many positive advances being made.

1. Our union (AFT 6157) is now considered, in our District and college structural organization as a “constituency group” to be included in the collaborative processes of our campuses and district decision making functions. We have seats assigned to the FA on most District and College committees and we participate in a wide variety of events and functions around the campuses in a more comfortable and engaging manner than I have ever seen. This year we have been asked to sit on the Steering Committee of the upcoming 2010 Accreditation Self Study.

2. Our working relationships with the District and College leadership continues to improve and we are able to work collectively and, for the most part, very positively on a wide variety of issues directly and indirectly contained in the Collective Bargaining Agreement as well as other issues that impact our faculty and our institutions.

Our working relationship with Vice Chancellor of Human Resources and the Vice Chancellor of Administrative Services has resulted in much improved resolutions of contract issues and by now you all know about the Bridge Plan for post 1982 faculty to have some medical coverage between retirement and the age of Medicare.

3. We also continue to show our “audacity of union” in our community outreach efforts as well.

-FA, AFT 6157, Vice President, Dr. Frank Espinoza, has been appointed to the Program and Policy Committee of our National Union, the American Federation of Teachers that meet quarterly to make policy and promote higher education issues at the National level. He also continues to serve as our representative to the statewide committee on Human and Women’s Rights.

-Under Frank’s leadership our local AFT 6157 was honored at the AFT Higher Education Conference earlier this month by being selected as one of eight locals in the United States to win the President’s Circle Award for our organizational and political effectiveness.

-Executive Director Barbara Hanfling has been selected to serve as the “formula funded” representative to very important statewide discussions being held to determine the feasibility of a possible merger of the two community college faculty unions (our own Community Council of California (CCC) with the community college union inside the California Teachers Association (CCA-Community College Association) – See my article regarding these mergers talks in one of last years Faculty Matters newsletter, “Merger, Are you Nuts”, for details of what those talks are about and how they may change our unions. We are so fortunate to have Barbara and her expertise in a wide variety of areas including grievances, negotiations and contract interpretation.

-In conclusion I was elected as one of the Vice Presidents of our state organization, the California Federation of Teachers, at the statewide convention last week and we were able to retain our seat on the Executive Board of the South Bay Labor Council when our long time representative and President Emeritus Mark Newton stepped down after serving over six years in that very important position. I was successfully elected to replace Mark at the general delegate meeting last week.

-Our local, AFT 6157, has also requested to host the CFT state convention here in San Jose in 2012. Stay tuned for more details and how you can help our union, small by comparison to others who normally host these events, continue our outreach by making that convention one of the best in our area.

-We have also just initiated our program of Union Mentorship under the skillful guidance of our union’s San Jose City College Representative Laura Sanchez and the initial results are very encouraging. You will hear more later.

In closing let me say that everyone on the Executive Board and the members of the Council of Division Representatives have contributed greatly to this expansion of our union’s influence and outreach and we encourage all of you, who have not taken the leap, to join us in making your union the positive influence and force we all would like it to be to improve our working environment, our colleges and by extension the learning and lives or our students.