Spring 2011 Election Results for the UC-AFT Local 1474 Executive Board

The following members were elected to serve on the Executive Board of UC-AFT Local 1474 Berkeley-San Francisco during the 2011-2012 academic year.  Many thanks to all of them for their generous gift of time and attention for the coming year. Their candidates' statements are posted below their names.

Local 1474 Executive Board Candidates' Statements

President

Jonathan Lang, Lecturer, College Writing Programs, UCB

jclang@berkeley.edu

I am running for the Office of President of UC-AFT Local 1474.

I was hired as a part-time Lecturer in 1989 in the College Writing Programs (formerly  Subject A). I have been teaching in CWP full-time for approximately 8 years.

I have held the following positions in this local: Chair of the Election Committee (3 years); current member of the Grievance Committee and appointed member of the Local Board (2011). In addition, I have participated in systemwide UC-AFT Council meetings for the past two years.

As President of the Local, I would organize members to advocate for the following priorities: (1) continuing to raise the historically low salaries of both lecturers and librarians to more equitable levels; (2) protecting pension benefits without further depressing salaries going forward; (3) supporting stronger job protections and fairer review procedures for all lecturers, especially pre-6 lecturers; (4) restoring funding to the Libraries so that the basic needs of undergraduate research may be met; (5) advocating that on-line tools be chosen and implemented for the right reasons and not the wrong ones, that is to improve the quality of university education, not to reduce costs, cut staff, or generate revenues; and (6) defending our own and our fellow public and private workers' rights to unionize, bargain collectively, and advocate for reform.

Vice-President

Joi Barrios, Lecturer of Filipino and Philippine Literature, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, UCB

joibarrios@berkeley.edu, mjbarrio2@mac.com

I would like to serve as Vice-President this year, and continue working towards building a stronger union. Although I am relatively new in the university, having been appointed only in 2008, I have been active in the struggle against budget cuts, and I have been on this board for one year.  I  am committed to work actively as we continue negotiations.  This year, I have participated in increasing our face-to-face organizing, reaching out to our members.  This coming year, I hope to continue that work, and also work on strengthening our solidarity with students, university workers,  and senate faculty.  I have brought to AFT my experience as an organizer at the University of the Philippines academic union, where we successfully fought to have the first academic union on campus and have an elected faculty member serve in the Board of Regents.  I am committed to being accessible to everyone in person, by email or by phone.

Treasurer

Kathryn Klar, Lecturer, Celtic Studies Program, UCB

kkestrel@berkeley.edu, kklar@ucaft.org

I have been president of UC-AFT Local 1474 for 7 out of the past 8 years.   I am planning to retire in 2012, and it is time to turn the local over to new leadership. Over the past eight years, we have been able to build a solid local union, one which actively represents the interests of Berkeley's non-Senate faculty--its librarians and lecturers.  Our union, at both the local and statewide level, is the strongest voice we have for fairness and transparency in our workplace.  I am running for Treasurer of the Local so that for the next year or so I can continue to work with our bargaining units in ensuring that we are treated as the professionals that we are, and to make sure that our hard-won contract provisions are enforced.

Secretary

Virginia Abascal, Lecturer, Berkeley Law, UCB,

virginiaabascal@sbcglobal.net

I have belonged to this local for 12 years.  I have served two terms as Member-At-Large and one term as Local Secretary, and I am once again running for the position of Local Secretary.  The Union is especially important to lecturers and librarians at UC in this time of financial crises.  It gives us a voice to preserve non-Senate faculty excellence, rights, and recognition. 

Members-at-Large (2)

Karen MacLeod, Academic Specialist, Keck Center, UCSF,

kmac@phy.ucsf.edu

I am excited about running for re-election to the UC-AFT Local 1474 Executive Board as a Member-at-Large.  I have belonged to UC-AFT for about eight years and have served on the E-Board for the last five. Prior to holding an academic appointment at UCSF I was in the UPTE technical unit where I gained much of my union experience. In addition to being the UCSF UPTE president for several years I was a volunteer organizer for several successful organizing drives, I served on the bargaining team, and I was an elected member of the UPTE statewide E-Board. I also gained valuable experience serving as the co-chair of the UPTE system wide grievance committee and by planning and participating in several legislative efforts.

If elected, I would like to continue to work with the Central Alameda Labor Council as your representative. I will also continue to work to expand our local’s membership numbers in order to bring our lecturer and librarian membership numbers up, and to increase our visibility in order to increase our bargaining strength. A solid, strongly organized unit of rank and file members makes for better contracts. I will work with our local executive board to accomplish this over the next year.

Keiko Yamanaka, Lecturer, Ethnic Studies Department/Asian Studies, UCB

yamanaka@berkeley.edu

I have worked as a lecturer in the UC Berkeley since 1996 and have felt all these years the under-appreciation of our labor by the administration, the Senate faculty members, and the university in general.  By definition, lecturers have very little voice, status and security.  And yet we work so hard to teach our students because we believe the importance of our occupation.  The lecturers' labor union has played a significant role in protecting our rights and representing our voice.  In the time of massive unemployment, I believe there is an increasing need for us to come together for the recognition of our dedication and the protection of our rights.