UC-AFT holds virtual teaching faculty rally to settle contract
Jasmine Lee/Staff
The University Council-American Federation of Teachers hosted a virtual rally Monday at 1 p.m. to call on the UC Office of the President to settle a new teaching faculty contract and reappointment process.
Nearly 200 people gathered at a Zoom rally to participate in a virtual rally Monday at 1 p.m. to call on the UC Office of the President, or UCOP, to settle a new teaching faculty contract and reappointment process.
According to the UC memorandum of understanding, Unit 18 represents non-Senate faculty who instruct UC students. Their contract, which dictates Unit 18 faculty’s treatment, had been in effect since Feb. 29, 2016, but expired Jan. 31, 2020. The one-hour rally was hosted by the University Council-American Federation of Teachers, or UC-AFT.
D.C. students, teachers go to classrooms for first time in nearly a year
Perry Stein, Lauren Lumpkin, Joe Heim and Laura Meckler, The Washington Post
Feb. 2, 2021
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Precious Ogbunike prepares to screen Josh Ramirez on the first day of in-person classes at Columbia Heights Education Campus in Washington on Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021.Photo for The Washington Post by Amanda Andrade-Rhoades
WASHINGTON - After months of planning - of false starts, teacher protests, arbitration, a court filing and a final snow delay - District of Columbia public schools opened their doors to teachers and students for in-person learning Tuesday for the first time in nearly a year.
Amazon’s anti-union blitz stalks Alabama warehouse workers everywhere, even the bathroom Jay Greene SEATTLE Some workers in Amazon’s Bessemer, Ala., warehouse complain that the company’s aggressive performance expectations leave them little time to take bathroom breaks. When they do get there, they face messaging from Amazon pressing its case against unionization, imploring them to vote against it when mail-in balloting begins Feb. 8. “Where will your dues go?” reads a flier posted on the door inside a bathroom stall. “They got right in your face when you’re using the stall,” said Darryl Richardson, a worker at the warehouse who supports the union. Another pro-union worker who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution said of Amazon’s toilet reading: “I feel like I’m getting harassed.” Amazon to face first U.S. unionization vote in seven years next month
Education Pick Miguel Cardona Is New To Washington But Not To Classrooms
By Cory Turner
February 2, 2021
On Wednesday, lawmakers will have some tough questions for Miguel Cardona, President Biden’s nominee to be the next U.S. education secretary. The Connecticut educator will no doubt have to navigate the choppy policy waters of school choice, how to close opportunity gaps and, most critically, how he would help schools reopen as the pandemic rages.
For now, though, members of the U.S. Senate’s education committee won’t have much to go on as they prepare for Cardona’s hearing. That’s because, along with most of the country, many of those lawmakers are just now getting to know him.
Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images
What do we need to open schools safely?
It’s a question on millions of Americans’ minds as the Covid-19 pandemic lurches into its 11th month, with many children still learning at home, many parents beyond burned out, and some of them forced to quit their jobs to take care of kids.
It’s also a question with seemingly limitless answers, as states, school districts, and teachers unions have been left to negotiate safety among themselves with, until recently, little guidance from the federal government.
In Arizona, for example, many school districts are open for in-person instruction, even as the state posts one of the highest test positivity rates in the country, at close to 15 percent. In Fairfax County, Virginia, meanwhile, some parents were outraged after a teachers union implied in a now-deleted tweet that schools shouldn’t reopen until students are vaccinated which probably won’t be until 2022. (The union