By Andrew Walzer
Help us by joining the Faculty Association today.  By taking this step and joining the union (the membership form is enclosed) you enable us to have a more powerful and effective voice in negotiating better pay and working conditions for you!!  This won't cost you a single cent.  Because Santa Monica College is an agency shop, you already pay Faculty Association dues.  So by taking this step and turning in a membership form you are taking a stand and saying: yes, I want to work together to improve our working conditions.  Joining the Faculty Association gives you the right to vote on the contract and in Faculty Association elections, and to run for FA office.
What is the Faculty Association doing for you?  As you read this, we are in the midst of negotiations for pay equity with full time faculty.  Currently, you receive 65% of full time faculty pay.  We are negotiating an increase part-time faculty equity on top of the part-time equity funds that Governor Davis has already signed into law as part of this year's community college budget.  We are also negotiating for expanded eligibility for health care benefits, so that all part-time faculty members who work 5 hours or more a week will be eligible.  We are also asking that all part-time faculty be paid for holding office hours.  This means you!  And finally, we are working to ensure that you are guaranteed job security if you receive satisfactory evaluations.       
We have tough negotiations ahead, and we need all the resources that we can get to be successful.  And our number one resource is you!!  It is through people power that the Faculty  Association will  win.  When we cango to the administration and say that we represent the entire faculty of Santa Monica College, we have more power..  Part-timers are the great-untapped resource that our union has.  If we can  thrust  aside our  sense of  marginalization,

and mobilize our discontent, we will be a powerful force!!  So it is essential that you stand forth with pride and join with others to collectively work together to improve our working conditions.  Take a stand.  Take a moment and sign the membership form and drop it in the mail.  If you are not sure whether you are a member or not, you can make sure by sending in this form.  We will check your name against our already existing membership records. 

Everyone in the Faculty Association and especially everyone who has worked on the Hourly Advocate and worked with the Hourly Committee these last few years says thanks to Gloria Heller for the wonderful and dedicated job she did.  I would like to personally thank Gloria for all the work she did not only as Hourly Committee chair, but also for CPFA as Membership Director.  Gloria: you are missed!  We look forward to you coming back and working with us again.
     - Lantz Simpson