Welcome to the Home Page of Part Time Faculty United-AFT at College of the Canyons!

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August 30, 2007

Welcome to the Home Page of

AFT Local 6262
Part-Time Faculty United-AFT
at College of the Canyons

The Voice of Part-Time Faculty at COC
PART-TIME FACULTY WORKING FOR PART-TIME FACULTY!

Part-Time Faculty United-AFT

The American Federation of Teachers

AFT Member Albert Einstein

"I consider it important, indeed urgently necessary,
for intellectual workers to get together,
both to protect their own economic status and also, generally speaking,
to secure their influence in the political field."
--Albert Einstein, Charter Member
Princeton Chapter AFT, 1938

The California Federation of Teachers

cocptsolidarity@worldnet.att.net

Welcome to the Home Page of Part-Time Faculty United-AFT at COC. This site contains important information for part-time faculty at College of the Canyons, links to part-time faculty related sites, and a history of the part-time faculty struggle for union representation at COC. Please peruse this information and let us know your questions and concerns. Part-Time Faculty United-AFT is dedicated to our fellow part-times, with the aim to bring about a better teaching and working environment with our full-time colleagues, a better college campus, and improved learning for our students. Be sure to scroll down this page to see pictures of your favorite AFT organizing colleague at COC! We invite you to join us in this worthy effort by contacting these indivuduals who are committed to success in gaining much deserved rights and recognition for part-timers at COC. Thank you for your interest.

BECOME AN ACTIVE MEMBER OF YOUR UNION.

In order to remain a strong and respected force for part-time faculty advocacy at COC, we continue to seek your support. Please spread the word among our colleagues about the importance of union membership. If you have time to help with the activities and work of the union, your help is most appreciated. We need help on the literature committee and other committees, and we always need help with general planning, mailings, copying, mailbox stuffing, support at the various union and part-time faculty events and at the SCCCD Board of Trustees meetings throughout the year, etc. Our union is a collective effort as always, so get involved by lending a hand for a noble effort and a worthy cause that supports the work that we do in our respective academic disciplines.

While we don’t yet have a contract that fully ensures protections for part-time faculty, we nevertheless do have rights outlined in our collective bargaing agreement that we need to become aware of. The AFT 6262 Executive Board is committed to ensuring that we all know about and have access to these protections and rights prior to completing the negotiation of our contract, and we stress that these rights must be adhered to by the managers and administrators at COC. Moreover, many of the union’s proposals such as seniority and rehire assurances, should be respected by COC’s managers in the spirit of fairness and professionalism with the intent of building positive communication and morale between part-timers and the academic departments on campus. By doing so, the best interests of our students and the college community as a whole are served.

YOUR AFT 6262 UNION LEADERS

President (and Contract Negotiations Team) – Beverly Cope

Vice-President Contract Development (and Contract Negotiations Chair) – Paula Olivares

Vice-President Membership – Dr. Pete Virgadamo

Vice-President Grievance (and Contract Negotiations Team) - Rob Collins

Treasurer (and Contract Negotiations Team) – Frank de los Reyes

Secretary – Virginia "Sasha" Requa

Please feel free to leave an e-mail with the address on this website below or contact them by clicking on their names above.

Are You On Our Mailing List? Keep updated with the latest news about COC part-time faculty events by leaving us your e-mail address, home mailing address and in which department you teach. All contacts will be kept strictly confidential.

PART-TIME FACULTY UNITED AFT-6262 ELECTS NEW EXECUTIVE BOARD: OUTGOING PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE & WELCOME TO THE NEW E-BOARD TEAM!

Dear Members AFT 6262 and Colleagues,

As of May of this year we have a new Part-Time Faculty United-AFT 6262 Executive Board. Our new president is Beverly Cope, with vice-presidents who include Paula Olivares, Dr. Peter Virgadamo, and Rob Collins. Virginia Requa continues as secretary and our new treasurer is Frank de los Reyes. These talented members of the College of the Canyons faculty, whose dedication to their students, COC, higher education and service to their colleagues through the union deserve our respect and admiration.

Having been part of the effort to bring part-time faculty representation to COC since 2001 and president of our local since its inception in 2004, I decided that it was time to pass the leadership to our colleagues. I nevertheless remain as a proud member of the COC adjunct faculty. Our new union executive board is most able and excited to continue the good work of the union; their experience, leadership, and professionalism are the best. We welcome them with hearty congratulations and recognize their important roles as leaders at COC and within the community of Santa Clarita.

I am proud to have served as president of AFT Local 6262 and offer my deepest thanks for everyone’s support and help. Let’s show that same kind of support for our new executive board and continue to work together to build part-time faculty unity and solidarity at COC, and to further strengthen our collective bargaining endeavors into the future. Together let’s welcome our new part-time faculty union leadership!

In Solidarity, Michael K. Ward

Not Teaching Over the Summer or Winter Breaks?
Unemployment Benefits for Part-Time Faculty
Your Right to Unemployment Benefits
Here's one hard earned right part-time faculty can exercise two or three times a year, and yet few of us do: The right to draw unemployment pay between semesters and during the summer break (if we ever take a summer break!) is one of the few advantages to being employed as part-time, temporary instructors with no guarantee of "rehire." For even if we have signed a contract to teach the following semester, including summer school, we can still collect unemployment during those breaks, since fluctuating enrollment and funding can break that contract at any time and leave us jobless.

In 1989, an American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local in San Francisco won an important victory in the California Court of Appeal. In its precedent setting decision, the Court affirmed the union's view that part-time faculty do not have "reasonable assurance" of reassignment rights in the next school term and therefore should not be ineligible for unemployment benefits during periods of lay-off. Since the decision, now known officially as the Cervisi Decision, part-time faculty around the state who have no job security, whose assignments are contingent on adequate funding, enrollment, and program changes, are eligible for benefits. Part-time faculty who are unemployed after the end of any semester or summer session can therefore apply for and receive benefits provided they are otherwise eligible for benefits. Unemployment benefits are not a "hand-out" but a right to compensation for the very real lack of job security with the district. Take advantage of this hard won right! Apply for unemployment during your breaks! CLICK HERE to obtain a copy of the CERVISIS DECISION (thanks to the California Part-time Faculty Association - CPFA).

IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE FACTS, YOU SHOULD. CONFUSION = POWERLESSNESS!

California Labor Federation

Please let us hear from you. Send us your questions or comments to help us build a better college and a fair workplace together.
All Contact with COC Part-Time Faculty United AFT/CFT is Confidential.

EMAIL
cocptsolidarity@worldnet.att.net

Part-Time Faculty United
Dedicated to building a better profession,
a better institution and better student learning.

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