Introduction- Welcome (Back) to the LRCFT Union News

Welcome to a new–yet also not new–and important LRCFT project. We are excited to announce the return of the LRCFT Union News, a digital publication designed to inform Los Rios faculty about what is going on in the District and at your colleges, what the faculty union is doing to advance your interests and protect your rights, and how we can all work together in the common cause of making Los Rios a more rewarding place to work.

This is the first edition of the Union News since 2018, and the LRCFT has not issued this publication on a regular basis since 2014. We intend to change that, starting now, and want  to use this single issue at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year to reintroduce the publication, to provide you with some important information about the LRCFT and its activities, and to signal that the Union News will begin to appear on a more regular basis, starting in Fall 2025.

This is an opportune time to relaunch the Union News. The current faculty contract, or collective bargaining agreement, will expire in summer 2026, and the LRCFT will devote considerable time, energy, and thought into planning for negotiations and bargaining a new contract during the upcoming academic year. As part of that process, we want to keep faculty informed, and abreast of the key issues and concerns occupying our members.

The Union News will also serve a purpose well beyond contract negotiations. Los Rios is the second-largest community college district in California, with over 50,000 students and more than 2,000 faculty spanning four colleges and six centers. In such an expansive district, it will benefit all faculty to have a publication that brings together workplace-related news from a variety of locations, areas, disciplines, and perspectives. The Union News will inform our members about issues particular to individual colleges or groups of faculty, and about issues that directly affect faculty across the district.

While the Union News is intended as a resource for faculty, our hope is that information and education will not flow solely in one direction. We want this publication to start conversations among our faculty, and between faculty and the LRCFT, in order to promote more cohesion and cooperation within the faculty bargaining unit. If you read something that piques your interest, that gives you pause, that raises your hackles, or that makes you laugh, let us know. And if you want  to write a piece for the Union News about your own experiences or challenges or victories as a faculty member in Los Rios, please get in touch, because the more perspectives that appear in this newsletter, the more interesting and useful it will be for all of us and our union.

We hope that you enjoy this first issue of the rebirth of the LRCFT Union News, and we look forward to bringing you regular editions in coming semesters.

In Solidarity,

The LRCFT Editorial Committee