Listen to SMCCD Counselors Arielle Smith, Lavinia Zanassi, Jacqueline Escobar, Sandra Mendez, and Jenna French speak about their working conditions

Listen to the following faculty members speak about the need to address excessive workload for faculty in SMCCD:

• Deepak Tiwari (on the amount of extra time and work required to teach online classes)
• Suji Venkataraman (how teaching 40 students in an online class is not pedagogically sound)
• Jay Lehmann (how state-mandated requirements to help increase student success and reduce equity gaps have greatly increased faculty workload over the last decade or more)
• David Meckler (doing the math to show the increasing number of hours required for faculty to do all that is required to teach their classes)
• Kolo Wamba (on the challenges of teaching online while dealing with the inequities exacerbated by the global pandemic, civil unrest and the digital divide)
• Hellen Zhang (on the struggles and excessive workload faculty face in trying to teach online under unprecedentedly difficult conditions)
• Eric Brenner (how the AFT and Academic Senate have been raising the problems of increasingly excessive workload since at least 2013 and despite the district’s very healthy budgets, they have still not done anything to address the issue)

Listen to Academic Senate President Jeramy Wallace support the need to address counselors working conditions

Listen to Ronda Wimmer speak on concerns about returning to face-to-face teaching under Covid-19

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In the strongest possible terms, AFT 1493 condemns the state-sanctioned murder of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We stand in steadfast solidarity with our brothers and sisters of color and with those raising their voices and marching in the streets. We denounce historical and structural racism and the ever-present legacy of white supremacy and anti-blackness on which this country has been built. We stand together with communities of color whom the racialized system of policing has demonized, criminalized, and debilitated in their struggle for justice.

We have been heartened to see the labor movement across the country join in the condemnation of the endemic police brutality and systemic racism in this nation. We applaud our brothers and sisters at ATU Local 1005, whose president, John Costa, affirmed their members’ right “to refuse the dangerous duty of transporting police to protests and arrested demonstrators away from these communities where many of these drivers live. This is a misuse of public transit” (ATU Statement). Their action demonstrates the power that working people have when organized. We encourage OUR members to raise their voices in support of our communities to demonstrate our commitment to the struggle.

We also applaud the AFL-CIO of Minnesota, whose president Bill McCarthy has called for the immediate resignation of Lt. Bob Kroll, the president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis (which has never been an affiliate of the Minnesota AFL-CIO). The statement says Kroll “has failed the Labor Movement and the residents of Minneapolis. Bob Kroll has a long history of bigoted remarks and complaints of violence made against him.” The Guardian has reported that Kroll referred to George Floyd as a “violent criminal.”

In a recent statement, former President Barack Obama wrote, “So the bottom line is this: if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn’t between protest and politics. We have to do both. We have to mobilize to raise awareness, and we have to organize and cast our ballots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on reform.” We couldn’t agree more. Our most sacred mission as educators and members of the California labor movement is to empower our students so they can advocate for themselves and become informed, active members of their communities and to provide our students with the tools they need to craft their own critical, ethical, and broadminded approaches to the deepest social problems that confront our world.

To that end, in addition to supporting our communities in their fight for justice, we encourage our members to financially support the current struggles, to educate ourselves on issues of systemic racism in this country and, where possible, to incorporate the exploration of social and racial justice issues in your curricula in the fall. The lists below provide some resources.

In solidarity,

The AFT 1493 Executive Committee

AFT1493.org
@AFT1493

BAIL AND LEGAL SUPPORT FUNDS

• Minnesota Freedom Fund
• People’s Breakfast (Bail and legal support for folks in Oakland)
• Bay Area Anti-Repression Committee
• National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter

PETITIONS AND MEMORIAL FUNDS

• George Floyd
• Breonna Taylor
• Sean Reed
• Tony McDade
• Ahmaud Arbery

EDUCATIONAL AND OTHER RESOURCES

• Anti-Racism Reading Lists Compiled by the San Francisco Public Library:
  • For adults
  • For children
• The Antiracism Project
• How is your school community talking about George Floyd’s death? Tell us.
• Framing Brave Conversations about Race and Ethnicity
• Why #BlackLivesMatter in Your Classroom Too – Heinemann Publishing
• Ten things every white teacher should know when talking about race
• Resources for Racial Justice in Schools
• The Lens of Systemic Oppression
• George Floyd Video Adds to Trauma
• Webinar from the Center for Urban Education, “How to Express Care with a focus on Racial Equity”
• The full text of former President Barack Obama’s statement (This can provide your students with an elegant and powerful example of graceful prose and expert use of counterargument in writing.)
• Directory of Bay Area Black-owned Eateries

Dear Faculty Colleagues,

As strong advocates for working families in the Bay Area, we know how much inequality exists within our community and how difficult it can be to survive in such an expensive area even under the best conditions. For our undocumented students and their families, it is even more difficult. Now with the novel Coronavirus and the resulting economic slowdown, we have seen firsthand through conversations with students and from the overwhelming response to resources that our undocumented students face even more barriers than before.

More than 20% of Californians are now unemployed, and undocumented students and their families are far less eligible for the limited resources that exist to support working families. For these reasons, AFT 1493 supports the work of faculty across the college and unions across the Bay Area to raise funds to support undocumented students.

As a union, we have donated $1,000 to the SMCCCD Foundation’s new Undocumented Student Fund. Last month Fund managers allocated $150,000 to 500+ students, divided equally. Beginning in Fall 2020, whatever donations are made to the Fund will be distributed to students identified by the District once per semester. We encourage individual faculty members, who feel they have the means, to donate to the Fund in any amount they choose.

The Undocumented Student Fund was not, however, allocated to ALL undocumented students in our District, as not all students choose to disclose their legal status to Financial Aid. Additional local fund accounts at each of our colleges can bridge this gap for students, who share their emergency needs with trusted Dream Center and Multicultural Center Staff. Additionally, these funds can be distributed at any time. We encourage you to consider donating to these alternate/local funds so every student who needs it can be helped.

• Cañada College: Changemakers Scholarship Fund & Program Fund
• College of San Mateo: Multi-Cultural & Dream Center Program Fund
• Skyline College: Dream Center Fund

To donate to any of these Funds on a recurring basis from your paycheck (pre-tax), use this form. Check the box for “Other,” then write in the Fund name in the blank space.

In times of hardship, it is most often regular people, like our faculty, who lead the way in providing real financial support to families in need. AFT 1493 stands with our faculty across the District to support the efforts to directly benefit our undocumented students.

In solidarity,

AFT1493 Executive Committee,