Category: Political Action

UFF-FSU Supports "Occupy Tallahassee"

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On October 14, the UFF-FSU Executive Council adopted the following resolution:

“UFF-FSU stands in solidarity with Occupy Tallahassee and the Occupy Wall Street movement.

As champions of worker rights, equality, and fairness, we support students, faculty and other groups and individuals demonstrating for economic and political justice. The Occupy Wall Street movement highlights economic inequality and political corruption in a time when collective bargaining rights are under attack. Higher education funding has been slashed and tuition rates and student debt have increased exponentially. Major U.S. corporations are posting record profits during a time of economic instability and high unemployment rates. Banks were bailed out and tax cuts for the wealthy continued as millions lost their homes and their pensions, and as millions goes hungry and lack healthcare insurance. Promises of job creation have been replaced by cuts in wages, benefits, and state workers. It is time to stand up for the rights of people over profit.

Occupy Tallahassee joins the global “Occupy Wall Street” movement in a day of protest on Saturday, October 15 in a “surround the Capitol” demonstration. The rally begins Friday, October 14, at 4:00. For more information about Occupy Tallahassee and coming events, visit http://occupytallahassee.org/“

Texas, Don't Mess With Florida

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UFF-FSU is examining several proposals for major reform of higher education in Florida.  For now, we refer you to the following resource pages:

The Seven Breakthrough Solutions proposed for higher education in Texas are inspiring Governor Scott to consider similar reforms in Florida.  For a humorous analysis of the Texas proposal, see these two 8-minute animated videos, produced by faculty at Texas A&M.  For more formal responses, see Maintaining Excellence and Efficiency at UT-Austin: A Response to the “Seven Breakthroughs Solutions” and Other Proposals and Analysis of Efficiency and Graduation Rates at UT-Austin and Other Public Research Universities in the U.S., both published by the University of Texas – Austin.

We also suggest that you read Breakthrough Solutions for Higher Education: Florida Can Do Better than Texas, the document that President Barron presented to the FSU Board of Trustees at their September 2011 meeting, as well as the associated Tallahassee Democrat article.