CFA Delegates Vote to Protect Labor from Police Associations

SACRAMENTO – Member leaders of the California Faculty Association (CFA) passed a resolution at their 93rd Assembly this month calling for the severing of ties between labor and police associations.

Police and sheriffs’ associations have historically been a force of racial segregation and repression of labor rights. These groups do not act in solidarity with the broader labor movement, and in fact routinely oppose the policy and legislative agenda of organized labor.

“At our Fall Assembly, CFA delegates passed a resolution reaffirming that Black lives matter, acknowledging the inhumanity of police associations that provide sanctuary for those police who terrorize us with brutality and murder, and asking our union siblings in the labor movement to join us in our call to end police associations. Police associations have always been on the wrong side of the labor movement and, as we move forward to end police brutality, these associations do everything they can to thwart our efforts,” said Dr. Sharon Elise, CFA Associate Vice President for Racial & Social Justice, South, and sociology professor at CSU San Marcos.

Police associations spend members’ dues money derailing legislation and policies to require more accountability, oversight, and transparency from law enforcement agencies. Let us be clear, these efforts by police associations to block progress make our communities more dangerous and more vulnerable to racial and gender violence.

The existence of police associations gives police false credibility as laborers and hides their true role as enforcers of capitalism, racism, and other forms of exploitation.

“I belong to the most visionary union on the planet! The resolution opens in the names of Ryan Twyman, Andres Guardado, Grechario Mack, Daniel Hernandez, Keith Bursey, Quinten Thomas, and many others who are family of union members and were killed by police,” said Dr. Melina Abdullah, CFA member, faculty in Pan African Studies at CSU Los Angeles and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles.

ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA FACULTY ASSOCIATION: CFA represents more than 29,000 tenure-line instructional faculty, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches on the 23 campuses of the California State University system, from Humboldt State in the north, to San Diego State in the south. Learn more about CFA at calfac.org and visit our Facebook and Twitter pages.