March 17, 2017

Jes King taught five class sections — discussions and labs — on a recent Thursday for his job as a faculty assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

King recently completed his master's degree, and is working as a faculty assistant in the chemistry department, part of a small group of instructional staff who now are paid less than their graduate student counterparts.

He and other faculty assistants interviewed for this article spoke with enthusiasm about their work.

Nevertheless, they have begun a campaign to persuade UW-Madison to bring their pay up to that of graduate student teaching assistants. The campaign was launched with the assistance of United Faculty and Academic Staff, UFAS, a labor union affiliated with AFT, American Federation of Teachers. Some of the faculty assistants are members of UFAS.

Read more at:

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/education/university/uw-madison-faculty-assistants-push-to-be-paid-as-much/article_31870bf8-930d-582b-87f1-62c1309033e1.html

GET-UP invites all members of the University of Pennsylvania community, including graduate workers, undergrads, staff, and faculty, as well as supporters of union democracy throughout the City of Philadelphia and beyond, to join us in this petition asking that the university remain neutral as we move to certify our union in an election. 

Text of the petition:

On Saturday, March 25, 2017 join us for a day of workshops focused on helping women take charge of their finances and plan for their futures.

Workshops:

• Basic financial literacy
• Managing debt and credit
• Retirement planning
• Navigating the world of business ownership

Colleagues,

The 2018 budget proposal released by the White House on March 16 "takes a meat cleaver to public education" and ignores promised investments in the types of skills, training and other vital family supports that Trump rode to the White House in 2016, AFT President Randi Weingarten says.

Rescheduled meetings will be as follows:

• Area I and II meeting: March 22, 2017
• Area III meeting: March 23, 23017
• MCEA Board meeting: April 6, 2017

Statement of Faculty Support for GET-UP efforts:

As faculty members of the University of Pennsylvania, we welcome efforts being made by GET-UP to unionize the graduate student workers (GSWs) in our university. We believe that graduate students have the right to unionize, a right confirmed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). GET-UP has been active in organizing a union for over a decade now, and while their earlier effort was stymied by the then NLRB, recent NLRB rulings have allowed them to revive their mobilizing drive.

AFT Pennsylvania's Executive Council has approved a resolution opposing legislative efforts to eliminate school property taxes across the commonwealth. The resolution was approved unanimously by the Executive Council March 10. The property tax elimination bill has not been introduced yet.

MCEA Area I, II, and III meetings that were scheduled for Wednesday, March 15, 2017 have been cancelled in anticipation of the snow storm.

Louisiana Federation of Teachers
BESE Report
March, 2017

Even as the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved a $3.4 billion funding formula for the state’s public schools in the coming year, Superintendent of Education John White cautioned that the plan will probably not win legislative approval.