ABCFT - Tuesday Talk - April 7, 2020
Member Voices - We Want to Hear from YOU
YOU are a vital part and voice of the YOUnion. ABCFT leadership wants to know what is on your mind. Do you still have unanswered questions? Still unsure about remote learning, contract language, salary, negotiations, evaluations or anything else related to our current working conditions, click this link here. All questions will be anonymous. For universal issues, we will address the answers each week in our Tuesday Talk.
Friendly reminder - Every Thursday from 12-2 you can join ABCFT leaders in a live YOUnion chat. Details on how to join the YOUnion chat virtual meeting will be sent to your abcusd email.
AFT Townhall - with Surgeon General Tuesday (tonight) 4/7 @ 4:00 p.m.
Join AFT’s President Randi Weingarten and the U.S. Surgeon General April 7th Here's the link to sign up: http://go.aft.org/townhall. Sign up now so you can get advanced notice of future AFT Townhall meetings.
APRIL ACADEMIC SERVICES UPDATE
This month’s academic service update is vital for all teachers. We hope that you will take a moment to look at this monthly report which discusses changes in academic services. This document provides the union with a means of giving the District feedback on the many programs or changes they are proposing at any one time. Without your feedback or questions on these changes, it is harder for ABCFT to slow down and modify the district’s neverending roll out of new projects.
For Elementary curricular issues please email Kelley at Kelley.Forsythe@abcusd.us if you have any questions or concerns.
For Secondary curricular issues please email Rich at Richard.Saldana@abcusd.us if you have any questions or concerns.
For Special Education issues please email Stefani at stefani.palutzke@abcusd.us if you have any questions or concerns.
C.A.R.E Act Details
Governor’s latest announcements
Today, Governor Newsom announced that California’s K-12 schools should expect to be physically closed through the end of the school year and that districts should focus on improving and enhancing distance learning. Though the announcement was not made with a formal Executive Order, we recommend that our K-12 local unions proceed under the assumption that your districts will remain physically closed at least until the summer. The announcement did not include community colleges or universities, but the expectation is the same especially with locally announced “stay-at-home” orders through that same time period.
The Governor also formally announced today a labor/management framework that we have signed off on with our fellow K-12 unions and management groups. The framework reasserts the need for management to consult with labor and to work closely with us as we proceed in this new environment. It also emphasized the importance of ongoing pay and benefits regardless of your job classification or ability to perform your normal duties.
We know that many locals have been working well with your districts. In places where this isn’t happening, we urge you to use this framework to compel your districts to be more cooperative. Because it has the formal backing of the Governor and the State Superintendent, it will be far more difficult for districts to ignore it. We will discuss this further on our Tuesday call.
Details of the Federal CARES Act stimulus package
The $2.2 trillion federal stimulus package, known as the CARES Act, was signed into law on Friday, March 27. As AFT President Randi Weingarten has stated, the CARES Act is far from perfect, but “it contains a lot of needed relief for workers and our communities.”
AFT has put together a thorough summary of the CARES Act, and it offers a solid explanation and analysis of where this massive pot of federal dollars is intended to go and how it will flow to states, cities, and agencies.
Passage of the CARES Act was a result of a bipartisan effort, and there are many provisions of the package that offer relief to workers, schools, healthcare institutions, and communities, all of whom will need these resources in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key provisions of the CARES Act include the following:
- $260 billion to expand the unemployment insurance program to include employees in the “gig economy”, increase insurance amounts, extend benefit timelines, and more.
- Over $100 billion for hospitals and health centers for training, retrofitting, and medical supplies and equipment, including PPE and testing supplies.
- Education Stabilization Funding totaling $31 billion for grants to states, who will distribute 90% of funds to districts for COVID-19-related activities, such as planning for long-term school closures and supporting online education.
- $3 billion for state governors to allocate for emergency support grants for K-12 districts and higher education institutions.
- $14.25 billion for high education emergency relief, to be used to defray expenses such as moving to online learning, continuing to provide meals to students, health care, and childcare.
- Help for student loan borrowers, including suspension of some payments and flexibility in timelines for qualifying for Teacher Loan Forgiveness and Teacher Education Assistance for College and HIgher Education Grant recipients.
- $3.5 billion to assist childcare providers affected by decreased enrollment or closures, or to help them remain open.
- $750 million for Head Start
- $15.5 billion for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
- $400 milion to help states prepare for the 2020 election, including voting by mail and expanding early voting.
We will continue to work with AFT as funds from the CARES Act begin to flow to states, cities, and agencies, and CFT will work to update you on how workers and school and college districts in particular can take advantage of the relief it offers. One of our retained legal firms has a good presentation summarizing CARES Act benefits available on their website.
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) takes effect April 2, 2020
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) became law on March 18 and will take effect April 2, providing emergency paid sick leave benefits and expansion of the Family Medical Leave Act for public employees. Most AFT members in California already have negotiated benefits that are better than this law provides, and the maintenance of funding for K-12 public schools and community colleges allows for continuation of pay without relying on use of accrued time (as noted in the labor/management framework above).
The FFCRA could provide significant benefits to your members if you have agreements with private-sector employers, or if you represent public employees who are excluded from the guaranteed education funding for the 2019-2020 school year. If your local has not been able to negotiate a guarantee of pay for your members during this pandemic without depleting accrued leave time, this may also be of significant benefit.
The FFCRA provides the following benefits:
- Up to ten days of paid sick leave which can be used immediately, starting April 2, by employees unable to work due to illness, quarantine, isolation orders, family illness and care, and childcare needs.
- FFCRA emergency leave must be used before an employer requires use of any other accrued leave, starting April 2.
- Employers are given tax credits to reimburse them any costs associated with the expanded leave given to employees.
- Expansion of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to cover employees unable to work as a result of the closure or unavailability of their child’s school or child care provider.
- After two weeks of unpaid leave (during which employees can use emergency leave or accrued time), provides up to $200 a day for an additional ten weeks within FMLA framework that guarantees right to return to work and other protections.
Labor Community Services
LA Labor Fed’s non-profit partner Labor Community Services (LCS) is leading the way in our swift and impactful response to support working families. Under the direction of Director Armando Olivas, the LCS team has been tirelessly organizing food distributions, resources, and webinars to support the labor community.
Find out how to assist in COVID-19 response or access resources you may need during this crisis at their new Labor Community Services website: http://lcs-la.org/
LA Labor Volunteer Corps
Many have asked what they can do during this time. We have hundreds of thousands of highly skilled union members in this county - Los Angeles is a uniontown. Together, with our combined skills, we can make a difference for our community.
If you are in good health, join the relief efforts by taking part in the LA Labor Volunteer Corps, organized by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor: https://bitly.com/
Thank You for all you do for students and your fellow colleagues!
In Unity
ABC Federation of Teachers
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