Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Systemwide protest planned for University of California -- latimes.com




Systemwide protest planned for University of California -- latimes.com:

"Bob Samuels, president of UC-American Federation of Teachers, which represents more than 4,000 lecturers and librarians, said the union's contract forbids members from canceling classes. But he expects many teachers to raise the budget issues during class and said some might move their sessions elsewhere to avoid crossing picket lines.

The goal is not to shut down UC, but 'to create enough resistance and difficulty so people talk about the issues,' said Samuels, who is a UCLA writing instructor and has been warned that he may be laid off next school year because of the cutbacks. He and other UC critics contend that the most painful austerities could be avoided by reducing top executives' salaries and tapping financial reserves that UC leaders insist already are spent on educational purposes."