Archives for Hot Topics

Dear Colleagues,   Have you or anyone you know ever considered serving on a Board or a Commission? Come join us on Thursday, September 21st at our Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute (BCLI) information session. The information session is an opportunity to learn more about the program’s goals, format, selection process, and important dates. You will also meet staff and BCLI alumni who will share their experiences and answer your questions to help decide if this is a program that is right for you. CPI’s BCLI is a 6-month program that trains advocates from low-income communities, communities of color, working families, and other marginalized
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This Week in Labor History September 18 The Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) is formally founded at an Ohio convention, during a period of serious corruption in the union. Two years earlier at an IBT convention in Las Vegas, a union reform leader who (unsuccessfully) called for direct election of officers and a limit on officers’ salaries had been beaten by thugs – 1978 Nine strikebreakers are killed in an explosion at Giant (gold) Mine near Yellowknife, in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Miner Roger Warren confessed that he planted the explosives that caused the deaths. He recanted the confession but later
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Dear Faculty and Classified Staff Colleagues,   Your AFT Guild has created a professional development course through SDSU College of Extended Studies for Guild members.  The details are below.  You may enroll for TWO UNITS, which may be used for salary advancement (subject to the appropriate administrative approvals in your union contract). To begin the registration process please enroll using this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/salsa-soul-and-spirit-sdsu-course-edu-997-tickets-37860337288 Please contact our AFT Professional Development Coordinator Elva Salinas <esalinas@sdccd.edu> if you have any questions or need additional information. Flyer SDSU Class FA 2017 Hope your semester is off to a good start! In Unity, Jim Jim
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Dennis, As you know, Hurricane Irma hit Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Florida in the last few days, and its unprecedented wind and rain caused flooding, damaged homes and schools, and left millions without power—and the storm is not yet over. Our leaders and staff from the Florida Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and many of our locals have been in constant touch with our members since last week to make sure everyone is all right. They need our help. Our leaders have been texting members in the affected areas, and while
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  This Week in Labor History September 11 Some 75,000 coal miners in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia end a 10-week strike after winning an 8-hour day, semi-monthly pay, and the abolition of overpriced company-owned stores, where they had been forced to shop. (Remember the song, “Sixteen Tons,” by coal miner’s son Merle Travis, in which there’s this line: “I owe my soul to the company store.”) – 1897 More than 3,000 people died when suicide highjackers crashed planes into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.  Among the dead in New York were 634 union
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Call Your Reps to vote NO on AB 726 & AB 813 Climate Warriors, We need your help today! SDG&E engaged in last-minute backroom dealmaking to freeze our energy freedom and deny families the choice of their energy provider. Our friends at Center for Climate Protection explain: AB 726 and AB 813 will require the utilities to purchase a massive amount of renewable energy before the federal investment tax credit for solar expires in 2020. Sounds good, right? The devil is in the details. This build-out is not necessary and undermines local governance of CCE programs. Community Choice operators are already
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Dear Colleagues, I am informed by the national AFT office that there is no local capacity in Houston to distribute or store clothes or other types of hard goods.  They do have a need for school supplies, but they prefer cash donations which you can send by clicking here:  Donate to the AFT’s disaster relief fund. We will be donating all goods we have received to local charities.  If you do not want us to do that with your donation, please let us know right away. Again, please consider making a donation to the  AFT’s disaster relief fund .  These donations will
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Dear Colleagues, As I am sure you are well aware, last Tuesday the President decided to make the cruel and heartless decision to eliminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that protects more than 800,000 young, undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. Below you will find links to resources and information we have compiled on DACA for you to share with your students and anyone else who might find this information useful.  Please let me know if there are any additional resources you have found that we could add to the list.   Together we will
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Dear Colleagues,   Have you been wondering how you can help the people that have been negatively impacted by Hurricane Harvey?  How about we put together a care package with donated items from all of us and send it to the relief efforts in the City of Houston! Here’s a short list of donation examples:  Clothing (Children and Adult)  Shoes (Children and Adult)  Underwear and Socks (Children and Adult)  Blankets  Towels  Toiletries  School Supplies  Books The well-known organizations are doing their part, but we may be able to provide a bit of relief for some underserved communities that will likely
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Dear CFT Members,   The California Federation of Teachers strongly condemns the Trump administration’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which threatens the future of 800,000 young immigrants brought to the United States as children. In California alone more than 200,000 Dreamers and their families are now at risk. Ending DACA is a destructive and heartless act that will cause severe harm not only to these young Dreamers, but to their families, communities, and the broader society and economy.  We work with Dreamer students and their parents each day in our schools across the state, and know
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