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Last Wednesday, tenure-track faculty swelled the crowd of observers to over 500 as they heard the university make a few concessions on the question of job security for lecturers. Their union, UC-AFT, is making headway, but they need to maintain the pressure. You can join the bargaining session on Wednesday November 18, 3-5p.m. by registering here. We are also urging you to notify your students that they can sign a petition of support for lecturers, which can be found here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/we-support-job-security-for-lecturers-2. The petition asks students to sign the letter below, addressed to President Drake. All you have to do is send the link to your students with the following information: Lecturers on UC campuses, including Berkeley, have been in contract negotiations with the UC administration for 18 months, but the university has yet to present any substantial proposal addressing issues around job stability. A stable teaching workforce benefits students by maintaining excellence in teaching and continuity in instruction, as well as improving student access to mentoring and other forms of support provided by lecturers. By signing this petition, you are telling UC administrators that your learning conditions are inseparable from lecturers’ working conditions, and that a stable teaching workforce is essential for a high-quality student experience. Here is a copy of the letter that we are asking your students to sign: To: President Drake Lecturers teach more than 30% of undergraduate credit hours in the UC system, yet their median income in 2018 was $20K. Three out of four lecturers work on short-term contracts with no job stability. And in this time of Covid-19, one in three lecturers are not eligible for healthcare coverage. Lecturers are first and foremost teachers: they go out of their way to advise senior theses, write letters of recommendation, hold extra office hours to talk over problem sets, help with writing, advise students on educational and career goals, and offer emotional support during these unprecedented times. Lecturers take the time to learn students’ names. Since February 1st, 2020, over 6000 UC lecturers have been working without a contract. In response to current financial uncertainty, lecturers have dropped all economic demands in their contract negotiations with the UC and are focusing only on job stability. They want to know ahead of time if they will be teaching the following year, if they will have health insurance. And lecturers who have proven themselves excellent teachers should be reappointed before hiring someone entirely new. Stabilizing the teaching workforce will be a tremendous benefit to UC students and is cost neutral. Public education should not be a gig economy. Don’t push lecturers to an impasse in their negotiations. It is time to settle a fair contract now with improved job security. A stable teaching workforce is crucial for our education. So please ask your students to sign the letter by going to this link. Needless to say, the job stability of our lecturers not only gives stability to students but also supports the working conditions of tenure-track faculty. We are deeply dependent on lecturers who teach over 40% of student credit hours on our campus. Michael Burawoy and Celeste Langan for the Board of the Berkeley Faculty Association. |
