 On behalf of the Rhode Island College Chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, Local 1819, I am delighted that you are a Rhode Island College faculty member. Extraordinary educators and scholars grace RI College’s community.
Since 1972, we have had a contract with the Administration i.e. the Board of Trustees and the present Board of Governors for Higher Education. The Agreement is a truly excellent, admired and respected document, which protects our rights and delineates conditions of employment, compensation and benefits, and all tenets of the academic process. The officers and Executive Committee are by constitutional mandate entrusted with negotiating, and maintaining every single section of the Agreement. Most humbly, we have done a superb job in these enterprises. However, the Union is not the aforementioned officers. The Union is the faculty. The members elect their officers, keep their toes to the fire, and constantly participate in every facet of the local union’s operation. Members vote in every election, be it leadership positions, ratification of the contract, development of the negotiating proposals; they debate issues in membership meetings, and constantly provide through the Assembly of Departmental Representatives and individually a continuous flow of questions, issues, complaints, ideas, etc. If you have any questions, please call me at extension 9842 or at my home (401)-463-7144 or, e-mail me at jblank@ric.edu. Please feel free to visit us in the RIC/AFT Office in Craig-Lee 229 or, e-mail us at ricaft@ric.edu. You may also continue to visit our RIC/AFT Website at www.ric.edu/ricaft to view RIC/AFT Newsletters, to gain further information about the Union, our affiliations and to access the Agreement. Sincerely, Jason L. Blank President RIC/AFT Local 1819 |