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As the Faculty Guild begins negotiations with the LACCD on our 15th Collective Bargaining Agreement (the “heart and soul” of our union), I am honored to be part of the team, which has been assembled to represent all of the nine colleges and all of the faculty in the Guild unit. 
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It wasn’t so long ago that Juan Carlos Vasquez was himself a community college student, earning an AA at Los Angeles City College before transferring to California State University, Long Beach to earn his BA in business.
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Jeff Hicks stepped up to the microphone at the Board of Trustees meeting on November 6th, the last of AFT Local 1521’s planned speakers for the night.
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Coming Through in Times of Need
For the second time in as many years, our colleges — our community colleges— served the communities in which they reside. In response to the recent Saddleridge Fire, Pierce College served the community as a refuge for large animals (a good reason to leave the Pierce Farm as open space, not as developed space, as has been proposed).
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The Guild’s new EDD Coordinator, Anthony Amey, is well-versed on the ins and outs of applying for unemployment benefits. After being laid off by Bank of America and having to leave the financial sector during the economic downturn, he found work as an office assistant at East L.A.
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Guild Conference Draws Over 400 Members
AFT 1521 set its sights toward the future at its annual Health Benefits & Financial Awareness Conference on September 27th.
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Welcome to the 2019-2020 academic year, especially to those of you who are joining our ranks as new full-time or part-time faculty members. We in the Guild know that your experience working in the LACCD will be memorable. The Guild, through our campus chapter presidents and grievance reps, stands ready to answer any questions you have about wages, hours, and working conditions.
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The terrain between Florida and California is starkly different, and not just because of the Sunshine State’s humidity.
Just ask Jacob Skelton, an ESL teacher and the new grievance rep at L.A. Mission College. Skelton was raised and educated in Florida. Having been a union advocate on both coasts, Skelton has noticed a vastly different climate since relocating to California.
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Every summer for the past three years, Guild member Camille Goulet, a faculty member at Los Angeles City College, participates in the Dilley Pro Bono Project, joining other volunteers for a one-week stint at an immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas, the largest such facility in the U.S., holding up to 2,000 people.
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Challenges and Opportunities
With the fall semester about to begin, we welcome our new tenure-track and adjunct faculty to our ranks, bringing the total to 4,500 faculty districtwide. We encourage the new faculty to attend the orientations offered by the campuses.
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At each LACCD college, faculty step up to be part of the Guild’s Contract Action Team, helping to maintain a strong union presence at that campus. At Los Angeles Pierce College, that team member is sociology professor Julio Tsuha, an AFT 1521 Executive Board delegate who just finished his fourth year as a full-time faculty member.
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Whether your focus is curricular and academic or includes broader political interests, the impact of the implementation of AB 705 can’t be overestimated. It’s not just a foot in the door leading to the privatization and corporatization of higher education -- the door has now been kicked open.
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Guild Membership Meeting Caps a Successful Academic Year
A parody of Gloria Gaynor’s 1978 disco anthem “I Will Survive” was an apt opening to the Annual Membership Meeting and dinner held at the Guild Office on May 21st that culminated the 2018/2019 academic year for AFT Local 1521. Attendees swayed to the rousing singalong led by Los Angeles College Faculty Guild president Joanne Waddell at the start of the late afternoon’s festivities.
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Citing a lack of transparency and failure to engage in collegial consultation with faculty stakeholder groups, the CFT approved a vote of no confidence in State Chancellor Eloy Oakley.
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Over 50 AFT 1521 members were among the nearly 500 delegates and 200 visitors and staff who attended the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) Convention at the downtown L.A. Biltmore Hotel March 22-24. This year’s convention celebrated the 100th anniversary of the statewide union.
A sign at a W.
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Now, more than ever, community college faculty need to stay vigilant as we face challenges that threaten us. These challenges have come in the form of legislation that impact course offerings and have a direct effect on faculty salaries, hours, and working conditions.
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The Guild Executive Board at its February meeting unanimously passed a vote of no confidence in LACCD Board of Trustee member Scott Svonkin, who will be up for re-election in November 2020. If Svonkin declares his candidacy, the Guild is asking potential supporters to withhold their endorsements.
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