Faculty: please share the information below with your students! Now in its fourth year, the AFT 1493 internship program gives SMCCCD students an opportunity to develop their skills in organizing and communications while joining our ongoing conversation about how labor unions can make our public education system more equitable. 

Call for Applications: AFT 1493 Internship/Scholarship

AFT 1493 is the labor union that represents all faculty at Skyline, CSM, and Cañada College. We are seeking 1-2 interns who want to learn more about organizing techniques, the structure and functioning of labor unions, and the role of the labor movement in public education. The intern(s) must be current SMCCCD student(s). Each intern will receive a $1,000 scholarship. The internship will take place during spring semester 2024, with no more than 40-50 total hours of work per intern.

Exact hours and duties will be decided collaboratively by the interns and AFT 1493 leadership. Our aim is to allow interns to make progress towards their own goals (for instance, developing skills in a particular area) while also helping AFT 1493 build organizing capacity and union power. Most meetings in our union take place on weekdays in the late afternoon, so it would be very helpful, though not required, for interns to be free some weekdays between 3 and 5:30 p.m. 

Possible duties include:

1. Learning principles of successful workplace organizing and collaborating with union members to put these concepts into practice
2. Learning to use particular organizing techniques and technological tools (like apps) that support organizing
3. Collaborating with union officers and reps to create materials for union communications, including social media posts, emails, flyers, and our union newsletter, The Advocate
4. Participating in our Contract Action Team, which organizes collective actions to improve faculty working conditions and student learning conditions
5. Participating in our Anti-Oppression Committee, which organizes against racism, sexism, ableism, heteronormativity, and other forms of hierarchical oppression in SMCCCD
6. With support from union staff, creating and leading campaigns to organize students around shared student-faculty interests and providing a bridge to existing student groups at the colleges
7. With support from union staff, organizing a teach-in for students and faculty to identify shared issues and make a plan for how to improve the district for everyone who’s part of it

Ideally, the intern will have one or more of these characteristics:

• Work or have worked a job in a unionized workplace, be a member of a union, or have a potential interest in unionizing their current workplace
• Have career plans to work in a unionized workplace (fields with many unionized workplaces include nursing, health professions, education, hospitality, food service, manufacturing, building trades, maintenance, transit, engineering, and public services)
• Have an interest in going into a line of work where they might unionize their workplace
• Have previous experience in labor or community organizing
• Have an interest in becoming a labor or community organizer

To apply:

• • Please submit a letter of application to AFT Executive Director Marianne Kaletzky at kaletzky@aft1493.org by Wednesday, January 31st at 11:59 p.m.

• In your letter, please indicate where you are a student, what you are majoring in (if you have a major), and write 100-200 words about why you are interested in this opportunity.

• Please submit the letter by email to kaletzky@aft1493.org. Please make “AFT Internship Application” the subject line of your email.

Questions? Please email Marianne Kaletzky at kaletzky@aft1493.org.

We look forward to hearing from you!