AFT-Oregon members spent a few hours on May 4, to canvass for Jaime Rodriguez, Local 2277 (PCCFAP) who is running for the Hillsboro School Board. Volunteers knocked on doors all over the district to talk one-on-one with voters on the importance of voting in school board elections, and what their votes mean for public education in Hillsboro.
Local 6069 (CGE) will hold a representation election for OSU graduate assistants currently excluded from the bargaining unit. Ballots will be mailed by February 21, and will be due back to the Employment Relations Board by March 7, 2013. Inclusion of these employees would double the bargaining unit to some 1,700 represented.
Faculty members of Local 2278 (WOUFT) joined with students and staff at Western Oregon University to hold a unity rally on May 22, 2013. Emily Plec, Local 2278 (WOUFT) President said the goal of the event was to "alter the 'divide and conquer' mentality that it’s either student tuition or employee wages. That one has to come at expense of the other.”
OSU research assistants have overwhelmingly designated AFT Local 6069, Coalition of Graduate Employees (CGE) as their union representative in an election conducted by the Employment Relations Board (ERB). Inclusion of research assistants doubles the CGE bargaining unit to some 1,700, covering all OSU graduate employees. Graduate employees teach and assist in teaching undergraduate and graduate courses and perform valuable research in science, engineering, humanities, and many other fields.
“Teacher for a Day” in Portland Public Schools provided AFT-Oregon President David Rives with the opportunity to meet Local 111 (PFSP) members at Roosevelt High School, and observe their daily routine at a K-12 school. Public leaders and those such as Rives who serve on public boards were invited to spend time in a classroom with teachers and educational assistants.
The AFT has launched the second phase of its campaign against excessive testing, Learning Is More Than a Test Score, which will include a policy agenda that takes into account what we learn from teachers, parents and others.
A Federal Court has rejected Bill Sizemore’s effort to make a “federal case” of everything that’s happened to him over the last decade reaching all the way back to his 2002 jury trial where AFT-Oregon and OEA successfully sued his organizations under the state’s civil racketeering law. U.S. District Court Judge James Mossman dismissed all of Sizemore's claims “with prejudice,” a legal distinction meaning he cannot re-file the same claims.
Local 3571 (PSUFA): Adjunct Faculty at Portland State University garnered 174 books in a spring book drive to benefit the Children’s Book Bank. The idea for the book drive came from members, as Local leaders were developing a Community Involvement Survey through AFT Leadernet in May. Some 45 percent of those responding to the survey said they would participate in a book drive.
