click logo for homepage
 
 

	Vol.7, No 39, November 4, 1999
	It was mildly amusing to read the commentary by a CSULB faculty member extolling the virtues of coerced membership into the California Faculty Association (CFA) via the recently signed SB 645. I thought, however, your readers might be interested in another point of view. That Governor Davis would sign the infamous SB 645, which forces CSU professors to pay union dues to CFA, was never in doubt. Davis owed education unions big time for their support during his campaign. When this issue surfaced last June, a pro CFA lawmaker in Sacramento who stands to gain from advancing CFA commented, "in fairness, people who benefit from CFA's efforts should pay their fair share." The key words, however, are "people who benefit". Unfortunately, the union has become a bargaining unit for lecturers (part-timers) and other minority interests. This "fair share" bill is nothing short of extortion. What SB 645 does is to forcefully take $6 million each year from the pockets of CSU professors and deliver it into the union's incompetent hands for political lobbying. A resplendent scheme. Prior to SB 645, only one third of the CSU faculty belonged to CFA. There was reason for this lack of enthusiasm from the professors. CFA has failed egregiously in protecting faculty rights and the majority of the faculty realize of this. In fact, in an Op-Ed article in the Los Angeles Times (April 12, 1999), CSU Professor Craig Smith wrote a scathing commentary concerning the lack of representation by the CFA. His closing observation was that it was time for CSU professors to get new representation. I can identify with Smith's frustration. Before being laid off from my 27-year tenured position in 1997, CFA failed to support my efforts to defend tenure, retreat and seniority rights. I wrote dozens of memos to the CFA representative, the president of CFA in Los Angeles, and union officials in Sacramento. The silence was deafening. I never received one word in response to my entreaties. In desperation, I turned to a private attorney to represent my interests and dropped my membership in CFA. To this day, my former colleagues are shocked when they hear the real facts concerning the lack of support from the union. Because of similar situations system wide, CFA has lost membership and is unable to recruit new members to offset the decline. With the stroke of a pen, SB 645 saves the jobs of union bureaucrats but leaves the faculty helpless in their fight against vicious and incompetent administrators. In dollars and cents, SB 645 triples the revenue of the CFA. But in return, the largely white male tenured faculty in the CSU gets nothing. In the past, faculty had a legitimate choice by voting with their pocketbooks to refuse to join CFA. The union knows this, too. CFA is well aware that faculty is aware of its lack of representation; hence SB 645. But by hook or by crook, CFA will get their due(s)! -- Joseph A. Lea, Professor Emeritus, Graduate School of Education, CSULB		Sparks to fly onstage   Union founder: workers still struggle   Ex-Clinton aide visits campus   Krispy Kreme to sweeten Long Beach taste buds   KLON drive 2nd most successful Remedial editorial protest   LETTER TO THE EDITOR ...Get your game on!   The Charlatans U.K. stage classic comeback   Renowned poet recites work Water polo takes on Air Force   FROM THE BEACH Fall 99 ISSUES DAILY 49ER HOMEPAGE
Forty-Niner Publications, Department of Journalism, California State University, Long Beach ©1999 All rights reserved.