by Nick Shrubsole | Sep 7, 2020 | Front Page announcements
September 7, 2020
We hope you are enjoying your Labor Day Holiday. Labor Day is an opportune moment to reflect on the ways in which the Labor Movement and Unions have positively impacted workers everywhere. From the weekend to the 40-hour work week and to workplace safety, unions have done great things! At UCF, your faculty union has brought you paid parental leave, but also negotiates raises on your behalf and represents you in bargaining when it comes to your intellectual property rights to COVID-19 policies. UFF-UCF is your voice.
However, it is important to remember that we live in a “right to work” state which means union membership is voluntary. We have no right to strike or to collect dues from all the people we represent. Right to work laws are meant to quiet our voice and to keep unions weak, and a weak union is less effective in serving the workers it represents.
A union is only as strong as its collective voice: it is up to us to build a strong union and make clear that we stand united.
This is a challenging year and return to campus. We are working longer hours than ever before under more stressful conditions than we have ever encountered. Many of us are unexpectedly spending more money on child care, equipment, and internet expenses. Others who had never taught online are now braving distance learning. Tragically, many of us are also dealing with the health consequences of the COVID19 pandemic. We have been asked to do the impossible, and we have risen to the challenge. We were asked to give, and we have given our all for our students, and for UCF.
Despite many emails of thanks from the administration, our current negotiations over salaries for the 2020-2021 school year have been disappointing: currently, the administration’s offer of raises on the table is zero.
Zero.
We deserve more than thanks for our hard work. We deserve compensation. We deserve a raise. Uncertainty hangs around our budget in the coming years, but UCF was not substantially cut this year. It is very possible that, if we do not get a raise this year, we will not be seeing another one in the foreseeable future.
Now is the time to act. The UFF-UCF bargaining team is meeting the BOT to discuss Article 23 (compensation) on September 16 from 1:30-3:30 PM. It is imperative that the administration know we are paying attention and we stand together to demand fair compensation.
Please visit the UFF-UCF Bargaining Website to review current proposals and for information on attending bargaining sessions. All bargaining sessions are taking place via Zoom.
In Solidarity,
Robert Cassanello, President (he, him, his)
Beatriz Reyes-Foster, Vice President (she, her, ella)
Michael Armato, Secretary (he, him, his)
Jonathan Beever, Treasurer (he, him his)
by Nick Shrubsole | Sep 1, 2020 | Front Page announcements
The new UFF-UCF leadership team would like to introduce ourselves to you.
We are an entirely new leadership team and look forward to the challenges ahead representing you and providing you with the support you have come to expect from your union. We will be serving you as the Executive Council of the union over the next two years.
We are:
Robert Cassanello, an associate professor of history in the College of Arts and Humanities and the President of UFF-UCF.
Beatriz Reyes-Foster, an associate professor of anthropology in the College of Sciences and the Vice President of UFF-UCF.
Michael Armato, the Sociology Undergraduate Director and lecturer in sociology in the College of Sciences and the Secretary of UFF-UCF.
Jonathan Beever, Director of the UCF Center for Ethics, Program Director of the Theoretical and Applied Ethics graduate certificate program, and assistant professor of ethics and digital culture in Philosophy and Texts & Technology in the College of Arts and Humanities, and the Treasurer of UFF-UCF.
The recent UFF-UCF election generated the highest turnout in our chapter’s history despite the COVID19 pandemic, economic uncertainty, and the fact that this election was entirely held by mail. We are humbled by the overwhelming support our team received from the UFF-UCF membership. The next two years will bring unprecedented challenges to our chapter. We will have to face the social and economic fallout of the COVID19 pandemic even as we endeavor to keep ourselves and those we care for safe. We also face the challenge of confronting our nation’s history of racial inequality, and we remember we are surrounded by land with a legacy of slavery, lynching, and segregation.
In these uncertain times, we are stronger when we are a collective voice. We are your leadership team. We are not above you, there is no one individual that is the union. We represent everyone in the bargaining unit and we will provide the leadership you have come to expect. We will safeguard the protections our Bargaining Team negotiated on our behalf and be a voice and advocate for the most vulnerable who alone cannot be heard.
Please provide us with feedback; this union is your organization and we are here to listen.
We thank you for the faith you have placed in us to rise to these challenges. We are eager to prove ourselves worthy of your trust and look forward to working with you to strengthen our union.
Robert Cassanello, President (he, him, his)
Beatriz Reyes-Foster, Vice President (she, her, ella)
Michael Armato, Secretary (he, him, his)
Jonathan Beever, Treasurer (he, him his)
by Nick Shrubsole | Jun 2, 2020 | Front Page announcements
George Floyd. Ahmaud Aubery. Breonna Taylor. One more family devastated. One more child without a parent. The list goes on and on, with incidents almost too frequent to be reported. Their crime was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time… and to be Black. The United Faculty of Florida strongly condemns not only the brutal murder of George Floyd, but the systemic racism that tries to excuse this and countless other acts of violence by law enforcement against Black Americans.
In a nation that boasts of guaranteeing its citizens life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, Black Americans are too often denied basic human rights that many of us take for granted. They can’t jog without worrying about being shot. They can’t sleep without worrying about being killed. They can’t even go bird watching in a public park without being threatened.
No one should be afraid to live their lives as they choose or to seek help from police because of their skin color. A mother shouldn’t be worried about her teenager because he wants to spend time in public with his friends. Fathers should not have to see murders on live TV, and project that nightmare onto their own children. Families should not have to bury their loved ones before they have graduated from high school or known the joy of holding a grandchild.
At UFF, we are committed to representing a diverse membership. We cherish that diversity. We only hope that we can understand the pain, anger and the outrage that these continued atrocities have produced. We stand with the thousands who have vocally and peacefully taken to the streets of our country. We stand with those who are the victims of this violence. We stand with those who are no longer requesting, but demanding, meaningful change.
The rage coursing through the streets of Minneapolis and other cities is born from hundreds of years of prejudice played out as personal discrimination or legal bias. We oppose any form of violence but cannot delude ourselves into believing that the responsibility lies only with others. It also lies within ourselves. Not one of us should feel that we are untouched by the effects of the pernicious disease of racism. Recent events only underscore this fact. The disproportionate mortality rate of the COVID virus on communities of color is only one more indication of its tragic and enduring legacy. We call upon our members, families, colleges, and communities to stand with us against racism in all its forms.
We also call upon Law Enforcement, and, particularly, our union sisters and brothers in Law Enforcement, to examine their contracts and policies to ensure that they are written in ways that hold those charged with keeping the peace accountable for their actions. We cannot claim to be a state which prizes equality so long as we have a criminal justice system that disproportionately impacts marginalized communities.
Those endangered by racism are our members and colleagues, families and friends, students and former students. It is critical at this time that we not only speak out but live out the values that we claim to cherish. Demands for respect, civility, diversity, equality, and inclusion cannot just be empty words shouted in the heat of the moment. We must speak up and speak out whenever we witness hatred, racism or injustice, however small or subtle it might be. This must be a part of what we do every minute of the day in both our personal and professional lives.
In our role as educators, researchers, and mentors, we must prepare those we teach to commit to vigorous and wholehearted participation in our democracy. An honest civic discourse cannot and may not obscure the truth. This cannot be “normal”. The killings must stop. The system must change. We all must work together to build a just society, where life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are guaranteed for each and every one of us, wherever we were born, whomever we love, and whatever the color of our skin.
