In this issue:

• Negotiations update: As initial proposals for new faculty contract are “sunshined,” AFT asks members to complete “Count On Me” cards
  On Feb. 23, the Board of Trustees officially received AFT’s initial proposals for the next contract, which will cover July 2022-June 2025. These proposals include…
• Our Contract Action Team (CAT) is growing!  On-the-ground faculty point people help activate members to join the campaign for the contract we deserve!
  CAT has launched a new effort to build faculty power, asking leaders in every department across the three colleges to take on the role of CAT “point people.”
• AFT survey finds 50% of faculty comfortable with continuing district mask requirement, 50% comfortable with ending it
  466 district faculty (a little more than half of all district faculty) responded to our survey.
• Adjunct faculty: Please take the CFT Part-Time Healthcare Survey to help improve health coverage for community college adjunct faculty
  The CFT is working to improve adjunct healthcare across the state. We need to adjuncts to take this survey to help us do it.
• CFT and Academic Senates collaborate on statewide campaign to enable discipline faculty to determine appropriate class size
  Since July, community college union leaders across California have been meeting to map out a strategy that ensures faculty have input in determining class size. The first goal is to push for a resolution at the State Academic Senate Plenary in April.
• AFT 1493’s Anti-Oppression Committee launches a petition for gender justice at our colleges
  The Committee has finalized a petition that demands more transparent Title IX investigation and reporting processes for the faculty, staff and students in SMCCCD.
  
• Faculty Focus: LaShonda Kennedy, equity champion and community advocate
  LaShonda Kennedy is an adjunct Work Experience Instructor and Spark Point Basic Needs Coordinator at CSM. I talked with LaShonda about community service, her various roles in Workplace Education at CSM, and adjunct faculty rights.
• CFT passes resolution to develop a strategy to end the two-tier system in California community colleges
  The CFT State Council passed a resolution to develop a strategic plan to end the system in which adjunct faculty have lower pay and benefits, less secure positions and less privileged working conditions than full-time faculty.
• What does it mean to be an anti-racist union? Reviewing the history of racism and anti-racism in organized labor
  At our February membership meeting, Cañada College Chapter Chair Michael Hoffman led a discussion about the history of organized labor and race in the U.S. and what it means to be an anti-racist union.
• Social Justice in the Community:
  •   Campaign for free universal preschool in South San Francisco gathering signatures for November ballot
  •   South City Councilmember James Coleman running corporate-free progressive campaign for local State Assembly seat