Today over at UCI, victory! Thanks for your support.
Total Resolution: Andrew's Paid Leave Approved!
Collective action works. Thanks to your support, Andrew has been granted paid leave for one quarter, consistent with his doctor's recommendation and with our union contract. UCI has dropped its demand that he pay back salary and insurance premiums. Andrew is on track for recovery and hopes to return to teaching in January.
This victory belongs to every single one of you (7,600 people!) who called on UC administrators to treat teaching faculty with the same respect they pay to research faculty. We're fueled by the conviction that #FacultyEquity leads to #StudentSuccess. Our students need us, and we need humane, dignified working conditions.
In a July collective bargaining session, we had already proposed that all UC-AFT faculty would be eligible for paid medical leave in the case of catastrophic illness or injury, just like tenure-track faculty. We're also demanding strong rehiring rights for excellent teachers, a path to full-time teaching for all who want it, recognition of the unpaid service and professional development work we regularly take on, and salaries that reflect our vital contributions to the UC. Stable academic careers should be the norm for highly qualified scholar-teachers who give their all for their students.
Our contract campaign is about making sure that UC teaching faculty have the resources they need to provide UC students with the education they deserve. You can follow the negotiations through our bargaining blog and on Facebook, Twitter (@ucaft), and Instagram (@uc_aft). To keep the momentum going right now, please sign and share our petition protesting the UC's ongoing wage theft.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you again for standing up for Andrew. Together we can achieve many more victories for our students and each other. #Solidarity #WeTeachUC #WhoseUniversity #OurUniversity
Update from Inside Higher Ed
Update: UC Irvine Grants Lecturer Paid Leave
By Colleen Flaherty October 10, 2019
The University of California, Irvine, this week agreed to a one-term paid medical leave for Andrew Tonkovich, a longtime lecturer of English who is recovering from brain surgery. Previously, the university twice denied Tonkovich’s request for paid leave, citing the fact that he is on a 75 percent appointment, teaching six courses per year instead of eight. Irvine said Tonkovich’s union contract stipulated that paid medical leaves are only for lecturers on 100 percent appointments. But he and the union argued that the university retained the ability to make exceptions. Tonkovich’s supporters said that the situation exemplified the precarity of even those part-time instructors who have relatively good working conditions.
In a note to Tonkovich this week, Diane K. O’Dowd, vice provost for academic personnel at Irvine, said that “based on clear policies and consistent practice governed by the union contract, your leave request would normally be without pay.” However, she said, “We also understand the difficulty of this situation and our administration is eager to help in the best way we can.” Tonkovich and his union said the university also dropped the demand that he pay back his salary from the summer if he would not be teaching this term. He expects to return to work in January.
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