CFA President, Labor Leaders Speak on Racial Justice

CFA President Charles Toombs joined labor leaders in an American Association of University Professors (AAUP) panel discussion on Monday about racial justice. AAUP leaders talked about racial justice work they have engaged in, the initiatives that each leaders’ chapter are currently working on or completed, the factors that prompted the focus on these plans, and any challenges encountered.

“It is encouraging that our sibling unions are making intentional efforts to address systemic racism, white supremacy culture, and social justice in their union chapters and on their campuses,” CFA President Charles Toombs said. “Some unions are at the beginning stages of this work, some in the middle, and some, like CFA, have years of experience.

“It was a pleasure to talk about the processes CFA took to center anti-racism and social justice in all of our union work, and to present many tangible examples of our collective work, such as our sponsorship of the Ethnic Studies graduation requirement, our anti-Black Racism Demands, our calling out at the beginning of the pandemic and presently anti-Asian Racism, our anti-racism and social justice proposals in our bargaining with CSU management, our Interrupting Workshops that provide our members with specific tools to address instances of racism as they occur on our campuses, our support and sponsorship of anti-racism and social justice legislation, and so much more.  “I am proud that CFA is known nationally as a union that knows how to get this work done and pleased that our expertise is sought after to help others do this work. I applaud AAUP President Irene Mulvey and AAUP leadership on their commitment to addressing systemic racism in higher education.”

Members of AAUP can view the roundtable discussion here.