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August 12, 2026 Colleagues, Welcome back to school! We hope to see most of you at the Flex days this Thursday and Friday. We’ll have tables in prominent locations, we’ll be wearing our red shirts, and since we are still without a contract after 18 months of negotiations, we encourage you to wear your red AFT shirt this Thursday, too! Please stop by our tables and say hello. Negotiations UpdateYour negotiations and strike teams have been busy this summer. We went through factfinding, but were not able to reach an agreement with the District on a fair contract for faculty during the hearing July 13-14th. We are currently waiting for the factfinding report to be issued, and expect to receive it any day now. Once we receive that report, it will be confidential for 10 days, during which time we will resume negotiations with the District. If we still cannot reach agreement after 10 days, the report will be made public and we gain the legal right to go on strike. Until we receive the factfinding report, we cannot say with certainty when a potential strike would begin; however, early-to-mid-September is a timeframe to mentally prepare for. Our goal remains to secure a fair contract for faculty before a work stoppage. In the last couple of weeks, we have received verbal indications that the District understands our remaining top priorities and intends to work with us to try to reach an agreement that meets faculty needs on: 1) Academic Freedom; 2) Lab/Lecture Parity; and 3) Fair Compensation. We hope the District follows through on those verbal conversations. If they don’t, we need to be prepared to exercise our strike power! To refresh everyone’s memory on what we’re fighting for and to prepare for a possible strike, we’ve created a “Strike Central” page on our website. This is the central repository for all things negotiation- and strike-related (calendar of events, logistics, FAQs, etc.) and it will be updated as we receive new information. Prepare for a 4-Week SprintThe next month is going to be intense. We need to simultaneously work as hard as possible to secure a fair contract through negotiations while also preparing ~1,000 faculty members to go on strike should we be unable to reach an agreement. That means we need YOU!
We achieved a milestone with our 95% Yes Strike Vote in March, and I can tell you that the District has made better offers as a result of that vote and our looming strike in September. After all our hard work, let’s make sure we cross the finish line strong, continuing to organize and flex our union power so that we win a fair contract! Onward in solidarity, Chet Lexvold |
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