Author: Tobias Higbie

Post-strike grading

The UAW strike is over, but considerable fall quarter grading remains unfinished. Senate and Unit-18 faculty are not obliged and cannot be compelled to complete grading that was assigned to readers and graduate student instructors during the fall quarter. The university can hire readers and teaching assistants (including those employed during the fall) to complete the grading with appropriate compensation. Leaders of UC Faculty Associations, UC-AFT, and UAW issued a letter to UCOP Labor Relations calling for central funding of the extra costs associated with completing fall grading. You can read the letter here and below:

January 4, 2023

Letitia Silas
Executive Director, Labor Relations
UC Office of the President
1111 Franklin Street
Oakland, CA 94607

CC: President Michael V. Drake

Delivered via Email to: Letitia.Silas@ucop.edu

Dear Labor Relations Executive Director Silas,

We write collectively as representatives of UAW 2865, UC-AFT, CUCFA, and SCFA. Due to the UAW’s strike over UC’s unfair labor practices during contract negotiations, a significant amount of the labor required to complete Fall 2022 grade submission remains outstanding.

The workers represented by our unions and associations understand their rights and protections. Senate faculty members and lecturers have no obligation to volunteer to pick up labor struck by ASEs employed in their classes. Readers and teaching assistants in UAW 2865 enjoyed legal protections during their strike, and their appointments for the Fall Quarter terminated on December 31 at the latest while the strike was active.

Should the University require additional labor for submitting any Fall 2022 grades, it can hire readers (including those who previously served as TAs for the class) under the terms of the new contract and/or hire lecturers at a rate set by negotiation between UC-AFT and the university administration. Further, given that departments were not responsible for the strike’s duration and/or resolution, we also expect this labor to be centrally funded. Finally, we ask that the administration communicate a process for accessing these funds as soon as possible so that course sponsoring agencies can hire replacement workers and instructors are not pressured to take on labor beyond their customary duties.

We are willing to meet to discuss this matter further.

Yours,

Rafael Jaime, UAW 2865 President
Katie Rodger, UC-AFT President
Constance Penley, CUCFA President
Jessica Taft, SCFA Co-Chair

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

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…

UC-AFT Strike: Nov 17-18

Non-tenure faculty across the University of California voted for a two-day strike this week, November 17 and 18. UC-AFT lecturers have been working without a contract for more than two years, and they charge the university with several unfair labor practices including refusal to bargain on key issues.

Lecturers teach as much as a third of courses across the University of California. They have little or no job security, and are paid much less than faculty on a per class basis. These conditions undermine faculty welfare and threaten the future of public higher education. The UCLA Faculty Association/AAUP stands in solidarity with UC-AFT and other campus unions against UCOP’s approach to bargaining. We have seen this scenario before with other campus unions: UCOP negotiators drag the process out as long as possible, refusing to budge until political and strike pressure forces an agreement. The time has come for the university to get serious about improving conditions for all its employees, starting with the lecturers.

Individual Senate faculty are expressing support for the lecturers by pledging to honor their picket line or take other actions. You can add your name to the  Pledge of Solidarity here.

An FAQ about the Unfair Labor Practices is here.

To sign up for a shift on the picket line, please click here.

Update on UC-AFT negotiations: 10/21, 7-8 PM

With a possible strike by our lecturer colleagues on the horizon this quarter, the UCLA Faculty Association invites you to a virtual town hall hosted by the Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA) with representatives from the lecturers’ union, UC-AFT. University administrators likely have sent you their spin about UCOP’s latest proposal to UC-AFT, but what they undoubtedly have not told you is that President Drake’s representatives have thus far refused, despite three requests from UC-AFT, to schedule a bargaining session to discuss the proposal. Take-it-or-leave-it bargaining that deprives a party of the opportunity to ask questions, achieve understanding, and present a counterproposal does not meet the legal standard of good faith. Good faith bargaining is the only way to avert a strike which everyone knows would be extremely disruptive. 

This event—open to Senate faculty from all 10 UC campuses—will allow Senate faculty to hear from lecturers about UCOP’s most recent proposal and to get answers to questions you might have about UC-AFT’s contract negotiations and about a possible strike.

WHEN: Thursday October 21, 7-8pm

WHERE: Zoom – Please pre-register at: https://bit.ly/3aOH5mu

If you cannot get into the Zoom meeting because it has reached its maximum capacity, please go to the YouTube live stream of the meeting.

Solidarity with UC Lecturers

After two years working without a contract, Unit 18 lecturers have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. Non-tenure lecturers affiliated with the UC-AFT (University Council-American Federation of Teachers) teach 30% of classes on UC campuses. Often they have the same training and credentials as tenure system faculty, but they have little job security, often hiring on by the course for low salaries, and forced to re-apply each year for their jobs.

Lecturers are demanding greater job security, improved salaries and benefits, and a more transparent appointment process. So far, university negotiators have not met their demands. According to UCLA lecturer Mia McIver, President of the system-wide union, “These are common-sense proposals, many of which are already in practice at the CSUs and CA Community Colleges. Teaching University of California students should not be a gig economy job, yet thousands of phenomenal lecturers lose their jobs each year. We’re calling on the UC Office of the President to invest in excellent education at the UC.” – UC-AFT President Mia McIver

The strike authorization vote does not mean a strike will happen right away. The union and UCOP are currently in mediation, a process that may be followed by a third-party fact finding report before the union may strike.

Lecturers are asking individual Senate faculty to sign a statement of solidarity and prepare for a potential strike. You can learn more about the situation at UC-AFT’s We Teach UC website. We encourage you to sign the solidarity pledge.

Faculty Associations across the system are gearing up to support lecturers. Read the statement of the Council of UC Faculty Associations below:

Dear UC Senate Faculty Colleagues,

We are UC Senate faculty and members of the Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA) writing to ask you to sign a Pledge of Solidarity with Our Lecturer Colleagues throughout the UC system as they negotiate a new contract.

The University of California is dependent on the 6,800 lecturers it employs: they teach one-third of undergraduate hours across the system, and on some campuses more than half. Three out of four lecturers work on short-term contracts with no job stability, no fair and consistent evaluation process, and no contractual assurance that they’ll be considered for renewal. Their median annual salary is $19,067, even as UC campuses are located in regions with some of the highest costs of living in the country. Most departments would not be able to mount their curricula without the skilled labor of these dedicated educators.

The quality of undergraduate education at the University of California depends upon ALL of its faculty, lecturers included. Our lecturer colleagues’ precarious working conditions are our students’ learning conditions.

We support the lecturers’ fight to strengthen job stability, improve wages and benefits, and ensure fair compensation and workload that reflects their training, experience, and contributions to the UC. Stabilizing the teaching workforce would not only be fair and just, it also would benefit UC students who deserve this investment in high-quality education. (For more information, see UC-AFT’s campaign website.)

For the first time in over 20 years, and after 2 years of negotiations, our lecturer colleagues, represented by UC-AFT, have voted with an overwhelming majority of 96% to authorize a strike. As Senate faculty, we stand in solidarity with them.

The Pledge linked to below lays out a number of actions you can take, including honoring the lecturers’ picket line should they go out on strike. The signatories to this letter are not calling on Senate faculty to vote to strike. Rather, we want to inform you that we have a free speech and HEERA-protected right to honor our lecturer colleagues’ picket line (see FAQ).

Please click HERE to read and sign the pledge, checking the boxes indicating how you will stand in solidarity.

For more information, click on this FAQ, contact CUCFA or your Faculty Association, and check out UC-AFT’s campaign website.

With appreciation and in solidarity,

CUCFA Executive Board

Higher Ed Labor United Vision Platform

Over the summer, Faculty Associations on University of California campuses joined over 75 organizations representing over 300,000 academic workers in a statement on the future of higher education. The Higher Education Labor Summit’s statements, Building a Movement to Transform U.S. Higher Education, calls for greater federal investment to reverse declining conditions in universities. The statement emphasizes a commitment to shared governance across various employee groups, and strongly backs academic freedom. The summit also called on organizations representing higher education employees to work together to achieve these goals.

University of California Faculty Associations endorsed the summit’s statement, which you can read here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e8bjmEZzaRY0ET434bpbO-k40vlV6hkK/view .

Faculty call for pause on budget & network security changes at UCLA

Over 250 UCLA faculty, including a large number of department chairs and center directors, have written Chancellor Block with a detailed critique of plans for administrative centralization. The letter follows earlier exchanges between department chairs and Executive Vice Chancellor/Provost Emily Carter and other top administrators. “Although we appreciated the fora that EVC/P Carter recently organized in response to an earlier letter requesting more time to evaluate the re-organization plans she is proposing, we continue to feel that there has been insufficient time or detail to evaluate their consequences and that we have not been adequately involved in the consultation process,” faculty told Block in an email copied to faculty. Faculty ask Block to delay implementation of the plans and distribute adequate documentation so faculty can be fully informed.

The letter caps off several months of back-and-forth debate between department chairs and various senior administrators over IT centralization and the so-called new “Bruin Budget Model.” Earlier in the year, administrators circulated plans for a reorganization of campus networks authored by outside consultants that called for a new “Hub and Spoke” model that department chairs fear will result in loss of staff and poor service to faculty and departments. The faculty letter also criticizes plans for network centralization and security, noting that distributed networks can provide better security and central networks are a more attractive target for hackers.

Faculty likewise panned the proposed Bruin Budget (BBM) model as one that would cement already existing campus inequalities while decreasing transparency over campus spending priorities. BBM is an effort to move UCLA into something like activity-based budgeting, generate funds to central administration to support the initiatives of campus leaders, and control costs. Earlier in the quarter administrators delayed a proposed change to the way faculty raises are calculated after faculty expressed concern about the differential impact of the plan across faculty ranks. The complex budget plan was the subject of an online forum with EVC/P Carter and other senior managers in mid-May that was short on detail. In the words of the faculty letter:

Many of the answers at the faculty forum on the BBM held on 5/18/21 amounted to “trust us, we’ll get the answer right eventually”. That trust simply does not exist. Oversight by faculty from across the University and the diversity of roles that faculty serve would help ensure the integrity of the process with regards to supporting the University’s core mission.

Faculty are asking campus leaders to delay implementation of the budget model, which was intended to go into effect on July 1, 2021.

Read the full letter here.

Academic Council knocks UCOP data policy

The Academic Council of the UC Academic Senate called for significant revisions to a proposed new university policy on “Research Data and Tangible Research Materials.” The Council characterized the proposed policy as, “overly broad, difficult to enforce, and a potential danger to faculty intellectual property.” Previously, the Berkeley Faculty Association criticized the policy as a solution in search of a problem, and a danger to faculty academic freedom. As the BFA noted, the policy opens with a sweeping assertion of new university rights, “The Regents of the University of California owns all Research Data and Tangible Research Materials,” and goes on to specify how the Regents should manage these newly asserted rights. A potential danger, as the BFA noted, include the possibility that the university could re-use faculty data that it claims to own, dispossessing faculty of their intellectual property. The Academic Council recommended a total rewrite, something “more limited in its scope, perhaps targeted to areas for which there is a clear need and purpose.”

AAUP Faculty Compensation Survey

A national survey of university faculty compensation paints a troubling picture of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on higher education. Salaries dropped for the first time since 2011 according to a national survey by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Adjusted for inflation, salaries decreased 0.4 percent when averaged across the more than 900 colleges and universities surveyed, and declined by by 0.8 percent at doctoral institutions. Nearly 60 percent of institutions surveyed froze or cut salaries, while about 30 percent cut or modified fringe benefits. The survey also showed substantially higher salaries for male faculty over female faculty, and for private institutions over public.

For the full report see: 2020-21 Faculty Compensation Survey Results.