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Open Letter: Senate faculty support UC-AFT strike, November 17-18

Byhigbie

UC-AFT and the UC reached a tentative agreement and the strike is cancelled. Read the details here: https://ucaft.org/content/uc-aft-teaching-faculty-reach-historic-agreement. Thanks to all who signed our letter of solidarity.

To the UCLA Community:

We the undersigned Senate faculty stand in solidarity with our fellow faculty represented by the University Council-American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT). Lecturers across the UC system have been working without a contract for more than two years. They charge the university with bad faith bargaining, which is a violation of state law, and they plan to strike on November 17 and 18.

This situation is intolerable and we call on the university to reach a speedy settlement with the union. The university gladly celebrates the research and teaching skill of its lecturers, but disrespects them through delay and resistance at the bargaining table. Lecturers teach nearly one third of all classes across the UC system, but have little or no job security, and are paid much less on a per-class basis than regular faculty. Their working conditions make a mockery of the university’s claim to be an engine of social mobility and a champion of social justice. The unwillingness of the university administration to negotiate reasonable job security provisions for lecturers is a threat to all faculty and to the system of shared governance we enjoy.

We cannot continue with business as usual under these circumstances. If there is no agreement between the UC-AFT and the university, on November 17 and 18 we will support our fellow faculty in various ways such as canceling scheduled work, joining the picket lines, and raising our voices to demand a fair and equitable contract for lecturers.

Sincerely,

Tobias Higbie, History and Labor Studies

David Teplow, Neurology

Chris Zepeda-Millán, Public Policy and Chicana/o & Central American Studies

Hannah Appel, Anthropology, International Institute, Institute on Inequality & Democracy

César J. Ayala, Sociology

Christopher Erickson, Management and Organizations

Jennifer Jihye Chun, Asian American Studies

Leisy Abrego, Chicana/o & Central American Studies

Ananya Roy, Urban Planning

Abel Valenzuela, Jr., Urban Planning, Chicana/o & Central American Studies, Labor Studies

Loubna Qutami, Asian American Studies

Natalie Masuoka, Political Science and Asian American Studies

Noah Zatz, Law

Michael Meranze, History

L. Burns, Asian American Studies

Maylei Blackwell, Chicana/o & Central American Studies

Namhee Lee, Asian Languages and Cultures

Keith Camacho, Asian American Studies

Sharon Traweek, Gender Studies

Greg Wolff, History

Lee Ann Wang, AASD/SW

Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi, Asian American Studies

Maggie Thomas, Social Welfare

Laurie Kain Hart, Anthropology and Global Studies

Sanford Jacoby, History, Management, Public Policy

David Myers, History

Carla Pestana, History

Peter Stacey, History

Philippe Bourgois, Center for Social Medicine, Department of Psychiatry/Neuropsychiatric Institute, School of Medicine

Sarah Tindal Kareem, English

Shaina Potts, Geography and International Institute

Reza Ahmadi, Management

Gary Orfield, Education, Law, Political Science, Urban Planning

David Yoo, Asian American Studies

Michael Chwe, Political Science

JN Trice, FTVDM

Adding names as they come in…

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