Have you been asked to work on a project outside of your normal job duties with a verbal job description with a promise of addtional pay? Congratulations! 

Did you sign a contract detailing the scope of work and compensation? If not, it is the advice of AFT Local 1904 that unit members not do the work. Why? 

It has come to the Local's attention that members who have been asked to do work for additional compensation are in the end, not being paid for their efforts. Therefore, it is the position of the Local that unit members, when approached to do a special project - especially projects outside of the academic year - should demand a written contract that stipulates the nature of the work, deliverables, timetable and compensation. 

Have questions or concerns?

Contact Kathy Hughes at hughesk@aftlocal1904.org.

Over the past year, the Local has observed that some employees have shown a lack of awareness that certain ways of interacting with students, subordinates, and/or colleagues may lead to formal discipline or non-reappointment because of sexual harassment charges. Therefore we wish to advise the membership about what kind of behaviors to avoid.

The behaviors that are outlined below have resulted from the inability of employees to maintain appropriate boundaries between themselves and the students, subordinates, or colleagues with whom they come in contact. In particular, employees who were once MSU students are especially likely to fail to observe boundaries because they identify with students too much or try to be perceived as friendly and do things that management find actionable. Some examples are:

• Asking students for favors such as rides.
• Commenting on a student/subordinate/colleague's attire or personal appearance, even if it's not in a negative way.
• Socializing with students or subordinates, inviting them to one's home, or going to a student's or subordinate's home.
• Inappropriate personal banter in the office.
• Asking students or subordinates to help with work in one's home.
• Giving or receiving personal gifts.

We find that employees do not seem to be aware that charges of sexual harassment bleed over into creation of a hostile or offensive environment and that the behaviors outlined above, while arguably not sexual in nature, could be perceived as creating an environment that a student, subordinate or colleague might perceive to be hostile or offensive.

The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) has compiled valuable resources that will be helpful in evaluating candidates and in conducting Get Out The Vote activities.  

NWLC has created a Voter Education page with an easy-to-use registration engine (offered in conjunction with Rock The Vote), along with some great resources that explain WHY women need to vote in 2012. Eight fact sheets, broken down by issue, are included on why women should vote. Topics covered range from Social Security to the economy, from health care and reproductive health to getting single mothers the support they need. The page also features a Woman's Guide to Voter Suppression, which details how voting restrictions such as Voter ID laws particularly affect women's ability to vote.

Here's the link for the page: http://nwlc.org/voter-ed.

From a Labor perspective, we are a month away from one of the most important elections of our lives. Republican governors have been bold in introducing legislation that limits the rights of workers to collectively bargain, weakening the ability of the organizations that exist solely to protect the rights of those workers. Wisconsin and Ohio were battlegrounds but it was happening in California and Florida as well. In New Jersey we saw a Governor, who publicly stated that he was in favor of collective bargaining, successfully take bargaining over pensions and health care off the table and put it into legislation. And he did this with the help of the major Democratic leaders in the north and in the south.

Despite this not being a gubernatorial election, this election is important for Labor in New Jersey and AFT Local 1904. The next President will appoint two, possibly three Supreme Court Justices who may very well get to decide issues related to how labor unions conduct business. The outcome of this election will determine if Right to Work legislation, which limits a Union's ability to effectively represent its members, is introduced in more states or struck down as unconstitutional when challenged. Will the Federal Government support the middle class taxpayers and public sector workers or squeeze states to the point where they will have no option but to limit public worker pay, pensions, benefits and rights, effectively squeezing middle class public workers to bolster the 1% who have been doing well though out the current downturn.

I know that the politics of this election are complicated and our members are all over the spectrum politically. But, as president of the Local, I am pointing out how this election affects us from a Labor perspective. No matter how you feel, please vote. It matters. This election matters.

In solidarity,

Rich