December 1, 2011

Friday, December 2: Day of action in SF to stop the cuts

Noon convergence at CCSF Ram Plaza, Ocean campus

Preparation for 2:00 pm demonstration below - sign making, speak-out, street theater

2:00 pm - Occupy the Federal Building Plaza (7th & Mission St./Civic Center Bart/Muni). Meet fellow AFT 2121 members near Muni stop on Federal Plaza side of Mission

Assemble at the SF Federal Building to send strong message:  Expand Social Security! No Cuts to Medicaid! Medicare for All!

3:30 pm - Occupy Wall Street West

March through the financial district to Westfield Plaza (to support SEIU Local 87), Wells Fargo Bank (to demand cancellation of student debt), and Verizon (to demand end to attacks on 45,000 union workers)

4:30 pm - Hyatt Regency
5:00 pm into the night - Celebrate and defend Occupy SF

Gather for a protest action at Hyatt Regency Hotel (foot of Market St.), to express solidarity with Hotel Workers Local 2 before assembling for a rally/concert in Justin Herman Plaza to support Occupy SF. Download the flyer which includes a route map.

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Occupy SF housing actions December 3

Join tenant and homeowner groups together for a day of actions focused on the role banks play in the evictions of tenants via their financing of real-estate speculators. Download the flyer.

Saturday, December 3, Neighborhood actions kick off in the following locations:

Bayview: 11:00 am
3rd and Palou—focused on foreclosures by banks
Castro: 12:00 pm
Harvey Milk Plaza—focused on banks financing Ellis Act
Mission: 1:00 pm
corner of 24th and Mission--focused on banks financing Ellis Act
Tenderloin: 1:00 pm
Civic Center—focused on banks financing Citi Apartment purchases
Mass march at 3:00 pm
Meet at 3:00 pm at Justin Herman Plaza

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Enough cuts – we need more revenue

California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office is forecasting that State revenues will lag behind the optimistic forecasts used in balancing the State’s 2011-2012 budget. This will likely lead to the pulling of the “triggers” in the State budget next spring, which will mean automatic deep new spending cuts. City College of San Francisco considers these cuts so likely that it built them into its budget for this year. The result is more austerity measures, freezes on staff hiring, vacant positions, another year without a raise or COLA, and cuts to the spring and summer instructional programs. Under this scenario, CCSF will lose about $14 million in State funding with the de-funding of 3,000 full-time equivalent students (FTES).

As Jean Ross, executive director of the California Budget Project, points out, these State budget cuts will fuel more state and local government job losses, which in turn only exacerbate already high unemployment and economic stagnation. According to Ross, the State must “take a more balanced approach to addressing the state’s ongoing budget gaps,” which includes acquiring new revenues.

With a growing public awareness about income disparity and the under-taxing of wealth in the United States come new efforts aimed at bringing new revenues at local and state levels, such as a local San Francisco parcel tax for CCSF and a statewide initiative to tax the very wealthy.

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CCSF partially shores up $5 million deficit

As we reported earlier, CCSF ran into trouble this fall after fashioning a 2011/12 budget for the College that assumed about $14 million in funding cuts from the State next spring under Governor Brown’s “trigger” scenarios. However, there were delays and failures in implementing the CCSF budget plan resulting in the $5 million shortfall. This gap has been partially closed by scraping up excess funds in various accounts (parking, block grants, contract ed, student health) and other means.

AFT representatives have been attending CCSF Board of Trustees budget committee meetings and engaging the District regularly on efforts to realize more savings. We remain concerned about the College’s ability to realize the needed savings. Moreover, the District needs to broaden its fiscal plan to address expected cost increases next year in health insurance premiums, filling critical staff vacancies, and restoring frozen step advancements from 2009/10, to name a few.

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AFT 2121 reopens membership survey

Amidst increased faculty dialogue about budget cuts and constituent needs, we have re-opened our membership survey. If you haven't already weighed in, please take a moment to let AFT 2121 know your major concerns and interests to help us prioritize the many interests that we recently sunshined. Your input will help your union leadership find a clearer way through these difficult budgetary times and learn more about how to best balance the concerns of our diverse membership. Take the survey.

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