United Staff of Columbia College

Striking housekeepers and other hotel workers decry Hyatt as worst employer in the hotel industry

In an emblematic fight over the direction of our economy, today Hyatt workers in Chicago join thousands of Hyatt hotel workers in launching week-long strikes in cities nationwide, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Honolulu.

Workers from the Hyatt Regency Chicago and the Hyatt McCormick are participating in local strikes. By striking, workers are standing up for decent jobs for themselves and their families, but they are also fighting for the right to take a stand against an abusive employer that is destroying good jobs in their North American hotels.   Continue reading →

Amid efforts to limit the power of unions nationwide, labor activists try to galvanize members and recruit new blood by holding one-day Troublemakers School sessions that are part pep rally, part instruction.

By Alana Semuels, Los Angeles Times, July 5, 2011 (read original)

There was no room left so the students piled onto stools and folding chairs and sat on the floor, clogging the aisles of this stifling classroom on a recent Saturday morning.

They shifted in their seats as the teacher, who wore his politics on his sleeve in the form of a red “We Stand With Wisconsin” T-shirt, started to lecture. At first they checked their cellphones, doodled on the pages of their notebooks, and munched on the free chocolate chip cookies and potato chips they were provided, uninterested.

“Who are the people here facing budget cut issues?” asked the teacher, Paul Krehbiel, a grizzled activist who has organized nurses and factory workers over a long career, which includes serving as the chief negotiator for registered nurses at Los Angeles County government hospitals and clinics.

Continue reading →

By Audrey Williams June, Chronicle of Higher Ed, 4/12/11 (read original)

At an annual labor conference here [in New York], one message was clear: Faculty members, union leaders, and administrators share a common plight more than ever these days and need to work together to help shape public policy and public perception about higher education—or get prepared to deal with the consequences. Continue reading →

By Kari Lydersen
In These Times – read original

Union members and supporters picket, as negotiations with administrators continue

Seven months after their contract expired, adjunct faculty at Columbia College in Chicago spent Friday negotiating with administrators they say have violated labor law and unfairly cut adjuncts’ teaching hours while replacing them with less-senior instructors.

Members of the P-Fac union and supporters picketed outside the college administration building as negotiations went on inside. P-Fac spokesperson Nancy Traver said pay isn’t the main issue for adjunct faculty, but rather job security and respect for adjuncts who in many cases have been teaching for a decade or more at the arts-oriented private college with multiple buildings in downtown Chicago. Continue reading →

The term of our current USofCC officers is coming to an end next September, and two union members have stepped into the role of Election Committee Co-Chairs for our 2011 Officer Elections. Jamila Jones, Marketing and Communications Director of Columbia’s Sherwood Community Music School, and Yolanda Kincade, Assistant to the Director of Early Childhood Education and Secretary of USofCC, have begun to coordinate the candidate nominating process.

This spring, under the union’s bylaws, we will be nominating fellow staff members for the role of President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary of USofCC for the 2011/2012 term. Elections are targeted for the end of Spring 2011 semester, with training of the elected leadership team scheduled over the summer.

If you feel that you, or someone you know, would be a strong union leader for Columbia staff, please submit a nomination. You may nominate as many staffers as you wish.

For more information, contact Jamila Jones or Yolanda Kincade through the USofCC email address: usofcc@yahoo.com

The USofCC might appear on your radar screen only a few times a year, perhaps when there’s a discussion or a vote involving our union.  But our union volunteers are working throughout the year on many  issues to ensure the college is always improving as a place to work.

One of our major efforts for 2011 is the annual “wage re-opener.” While our current contract with the college runs for three years, we have the option of negotiating for changes in wages and bonuses during each year of the contract. As a result of last year’s wage re-opener, college management and union negotiators forged an agreement that union members voted to accept: the 1 percent pay raise and 1 percent bonus for full- and part-timers.

This spring, USofCC negotiators plan to enter talks with management on wage issues. We welcome your input. Please come to the next general membership meeting to learn more about this year’s pay negotiations and to voice your ideas and concerns.

by J. Burger, IEA, USofCC

I had just started my work helping the USofCC when, on February 11th,  Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker announced his plan to take away the union rights of more than 250,000 people. In response, I headed up to Wisconsin to lend a hand to unionized teachers in La Crosse.

Up north, unions are racing to get contract extensions with their employers (city, county, school board). Statewide, they announced they would take concessions, yet Walker rejected this. His budget bill would stifle democracy in the workplace and damage Badgercare (low-income health care assistance) and other widely popular programs. Walker’s rhetoric couched his bill in terms of “fair share” and “budget repair,” but the bill has been revealed as nothing more than a power grab and straight-up union busting.  Unable to pass the budget side of the original bill, in March, Wisconsin legislators maneuvered and — with Walker’s signature — have  removed most collective bargaining rights of many of Wisconsin’s state employees. Continue reading →

Written performance evaluations are required for all full-time and part-time staff.

Forms and more info from the college – Click Here.