At the University of California, lecturers with doctorates and full academic qualifications may work full-time, but with no job security or prospects for obtaining it. At all levels of the public education system, classified employees should be compensated appropriately. No school administration should be allowed to circumvent payment of health or retirement benefits by continuously employing people just below the threshold necessary for benefits. Limits the use of the temporary faculty category, in community colleges, to faculty actually filling temporary positions. Restricting work freedoms has a chilling effect on the classroom and on job performance.
Time spent on union activities to advance education goals needs to be recognized as valid.
Additionally, the advantages of technology carry with them the potential weakening of peoples' control of their own work. The University has consistently undervalued AFT-represented lecturers, who provide much of the undergraduate education at the University of California. Currently the UC administration is failing to take seriously its responsibility to negotiate a new contract. We will exert legislative pressure to help lecturers and other academic employees achieve a contract that gives them the salaries, benefits, and re-employment rights they deserve. Specifically, authorizes PERB to impose penalties for repeated unfair labor practices.