The 2023-2026 Academic Professionals of California Statewide Officer Election has begun.
On February 27th after 9:00 am, you will receive an email from our third-party provider, using the email AAAElections@adr.org. The subject line for this email is Academic Professionals of California Statewide Officer Election.
Voting will remain open until March 13 at 5:00 pm. We will vote electronically for this election.
Candidates for President
Dagoberto Argueta
Candidate for APC President
When I first asked for your support to become Vice President of APC, I did so from the perspective of a steward at my home campus at San Francisco State. Now, after serving on the Executive Board for nine years, I would also like your support in realizing the full potential of our Union by electing me your president.
I stand on the work I have done as your Vice President: I have visited all 23 campuses regularly seeking to learn (in person and on the ground) your concerns and aspirations. I believe the impetus to solve our problems must flow organically from you the membership – to the leadership – of APC and that your needs (and not personal concerns) must drive the actions of union officers. From my direct interactions with you (and working alongside your stewards) I have developed a vision that sharply contrasts with the current direction of our Union and have concluded that, in order to effect positive change, I should ask for your vote in becoming President.
As your President, I will make sure your union dues are employed in service and benefit of you, the dues paying members of APC. For instance, during the pandemic, I insisted and was able to successfully implement the rebate of union dues to our members for two consecutive years (total of $1,000 per member) providing much-needed financial relief during those trying times.
During the administration of the previous APC President, our Union enjoyed the highest recorded membership rate (86.9%) but now stands at its lowest point in a decade with no plan in place to reverse this trend. As your President, I will institute a plan to reclaim our currently falling membership rate thereby ensuring the CSU respects APC as the representative of the vast majority of Unit 4 employees.
The role of the President requires the incumbent to have the interests of all Unit 4 employees at heart and to properly direct the resources of the Union to ensure no one is left behind in any contractual gains. Sadly, this has not been the case in APC in the last three years, and as a result many of our Unit 4 colleagues did not benefit from salary gains during the last contract cycle! As President, I will make sure NO ONE IS LEFT BEHIND and that our contract language does not disenfranchise our employees!
Most importantly, I envision the President of APC having an active role in advocacy in Sacramento to ensure our demands for better salaries and working conditions are met. However, this requires the incumbent to be fully engaged and with a focus on the interests of Unit 4.
This is why as Vice President, I have spent a lot of my time advocating for APC and the CSU in the halls of the State Capitol making sure Unit 4 has a voice in the budget decision making (so crucial to fund our demands). As President, I will organize a truly active political program designed to be a visible arm of our collective economic interests.
The office of the President is the most honorable position in our Union which requires diligence, hard work, and the personal commitment to honor one of our mottos – REPRESENTATION WITH INTEGRITY. In this sense, I am honored to be endorsed by two former APC Presidents; Patrick Choi and Mary Kay Statham-Doyle. With your vote, I will continue on with the legacies of these two former APC Presidents and will work tirelessly to achieve our mutual goals!
Always, In Union!
Edie Brown
Choose Moving Forward
Re-elect EDIE BROWN for APC President! Let’s not go back to Stagnant Wages and Invisible Leadership!
When I chose to run for APC President three years ago, I wanted to build a stronger, more active union, with a lot more communication with APC members. Prior to that election, for too long, APC seemed to me to be stagnant and not winning the wages and benefits that the members of our union deserve. I am asking you, the dedicated professional staff of APC, for your continued support in the upcoming APC officer election to ensure we keep moving forward as a union.
During my term as President, our union successfully:
- Navigated the extreme challenges of the unprecedented COVID pandemic, negotiating crucial Covid pandemic sick leave and fighting hard to keep our members and our students
safe. - Significantly increased the quantity and quality of APC leadership communication with APC
members, including a vibrant and engaging website.
In the three years of my term, we had more direct communication with members than the prior President had in a full six years.
Under my leadership, APC has:
- Grown our Labor Relations department, adding an attorney to an already strong, experienced staff.
I am extremely proud of the work of our dedicated Labor Relations staff; I want to give them the support they need to serve our members even better. - Approved Electronic voting.
- Approved Dues rebates for members during the height of COVID
- Built stronger relationships with Brother and Sister CSU unions
In the last year, APC successfully negotiated 7% in wage increases, including retroactive wage payments for the first time in 10 years! We are about to engage in contract negotiations with the CSU to provide a long overdue Salary Step system that finally recognizes and respects the valuable contributions of the APC dedicated professional staff.
There is more to accomplish and your vote for me for APC President will ensure that our forward momentum continues. Let’s not return to stagnant wages and invisible APC leadership!
GROWTH ~ VISION ~ PROGRESS
Visit my website: https://edieb4prez.com or Email me: edielbrown@gmail.com
Candidates for Vice President
Mario E. Baeza
CANDIDATE STATEMENT FOR APC VICE PRESIDENT
I am excited to announce my candidacy for APC Vice President!
I believe my experience, knowledge, and passion to improve the lives of our members makes me the best candidate for this position. I demonstrate leadership by serving in various roles within APC and focus on getting things done.
Since 2014, I have served on the Executive Board as the Council Member at Large (CMAL). As the CMAL, I am the voice of stewards to ensure their concerns are addressed. I established open forum meetings for stewards to engage and discuss important issues. I initiated Labor Relation meetings to inform campus stewards on current labor relations cases, issues, and time-sensitive information. And since 2009, I have served as the Chief Steward for the San Bernardino campus.
In both of my roles as an Officer and Chief Steward I strongly advocate for all members and empower them to stand up for their rights. I successfully collaborate with administrators and Human Resources (HR) to resolve grievances, campus issues and enforce our contract. I advise members on conflict resolution and how to maintain positive working relationships.
I dedicate my time as an Officer by actively serving on various committees to ensure all aspects of fair salaries and working conditions are addressed within APC, which include:
- Bargaining Team – I analyze data and generate reports to improve contract articles.
- Organizing Committee – I recruit and inform new members and collaborate with stewards to implement recruitment strategies to increase membership.
- Communications Committee – I collaborate with stewards to provide up-to-date information to members.
- Arbitration Committee – I work together with stewards and the Labor Relations Manager on deciding which cases to arbitrate.
I am leading the effort to digitize all APC documents to improve productivity and communications and to build the foundation for an archival structure which will facilitate access to our bargaining and labor relations documents.
As a result of my years devoted to APC, I will be the Vice President that fights for the rights of all CSU employees! I will meet with campus HR departments to resolve conflicts and file grievances and I will speak out at the Board of Trustees about the issues that impact all members and bargain for the implementation of a fair and equitable salary step program. I will talk to legislators about the hard work that all Unit 4 employees do every day and how we deserve recognition, higher salaries, and better working conditions!
I humbly ask for your vote for Vice President.
Mario E. Baeza
Council Member at Large
Chief Steward, CSUSB
Patrick Choi
2023-2026 APC Vice President
I am Chief Steward of Bakersfield, past President, Secretary, Council Member at Large, and long serving APC member.
I am so fortunate to have had your support in the past. I am running for APC Vice President because I cannot sit idly by during recent APC developments these past couple of years. With your continued support, I want to serve the membership in a new capacity and work with a new APC President, your current APC Vice President Dagoberto Argueta and candidate for APC President.
My experience with our Union includes from the very grassroots role of Steward to President so I am well aware of membership needs from the individual campus to the system-wide level. I have worked in Residential Life, Academic Advising, EOP, and Services for Students with Disabilities. Moreover, I have served with the APC Bargaining Committee including as Chair and have insight into how to strategize negotiations to address and represent the needs of our members.
APC membership at 74.6% is the lowest it has been in ten years. The highest APC membership percentage was reached when I was President at 86.9%. My concern is that the CSU pays attention to our percentage as that represents our bargaining strength. Why aren’t Unit 4 employees joining APC? Our Union is only as good as our contract and we have to provide and promote reasons why to join APC that are just not monetary. We need to directly listen to what our members need.
As APC Vice President, I will visit every campus, engage our members further, continue campus chapter development and help train our future leaders. APC is losing valued, experienced employees who are leaving the CSU. We have to provide more contract flexibility to retain current employees. Working conditions and needs have changed since COVID and I feel we can do more with our contract. APC is not utilizing current contract language for non-reimbursable APC officer release time to the maximum allowed. Instead, we are paying our members’ dues in the tens of thousands back to the CSU instead of directing the dues back to benefit members (like a dues rebate or provide more campus chapter funding).
APC has to solidify what we negotiated for and publicly presented to members in official correspondence to be included in our collective bargaining agreement. Examples emailed to all Unit 4 employees included: 2022-24 Agreement on Parking “Clarification that there is no contractual prohibition that prevents campus presidents from engaging with the union to reduce parking fees on individual campuses.” 2021-22 Reopener Negotiations language “Employees who were in pay status on or after October 1, 2021, will receive 12-months of 4% retroactive pay. The amount of retro pay will be prorated based upon an employee’s date of hire.” Another union, (modeled after APC compensation language), was able to procure pro-rated compensation contract language for their new 2021-22 employees. These examples did not appear in APC actual contract language. New Unit 4 employees in 2021-22 did not receive hard earned and well- deserved compensation at my campus and undoubtedly, at other campuses. I will do my utmost to ensure this does not happen again. As a member of the APC Executive Board, I will be able to bring a stronger, effective voice to the bargaining table when APC has full contract bargaining in 2024.
As your APC Vice President, I will continue working tirelessly to advocate and represent APC and its members to the fullest. Thank you for being an APC member. I appreciate and thank you for your continued support!
Candidates for Secretary-Treasurer
Fernando Ansaldo-Sanchez
Fernando currently works at SJSU as the Graduate Enrollment Counselor for the College of Graduate Studies. Fernando has experience as the Vice President of Programming for the Graduate Student Association at SDSU which included facilitating and budgeting for programs and events for the graduate student body.
Christine McCarthy
My name is Christine McCarthy and I am asking for your vote for re-election as APC Secretary-Treasurer.
As the current Secretary-Treasurer I take my responsibility as custodian of APC funds very seriously and have developed and implemented policies and procedures to safeguard those funds and to make certain your elected stewards and Executive Board have a full accounting of your member dues as they decide how those funds should be spent. I have guided APC through the yearly financial audits as well as audits by our previous International and the yearly audits by the State Compensation Insurance Fund. I am proud to state that APC has passed all these audits as well as an IRS audit of our non-profit tax status.
When I drafted my candidate statement in January of 2020 no one could have predicted the world wide pandemic that dramatically changed both our work environment and our personal lives. Despite the many challenges, I believe I was able to keep my promises including the full staffing of APC open positions. In 2020 and 2021 the APC Council took the unprecedented move to approve a $500 dues rebate to qualified APC members. Also in 2020 APC Council approved a small Death Benefit now available to all APC members. In 2020 and in 2021 individual campus funds were increased by $2,000, and with member approval, the funds were used to provide a variety of resources to the individual campuses such as PPE and the ability to purchase lunch for members who attended campus zoom meetings. As a former chief steward at the Fullerton campus and as a member of the Executive Board I have supported the rights of unit four employees through the filing of individual grievances on behalf of members, informal meetings with management to address employee concerns, represented employees in discipline hearings, and participated in bargaining on both individual campus and statewide policy issues.
I have served as Secretary-Treasurer for this organization as well as many other non-profit entities including the LIUNA Women’s Caucus, the National Charity League of Fullerton, the Fullerton College Football Foundation, and the St Juliana School Board. I am very familiar with the unique rules and accounting practices required of non-profit organizations. As an officer and steward I have sat on the Bargaining Committee, the Education Committee, the Policy and Procedure Committee, the Arbitration Committee, and the APC Employee Personnel Committee. I believe my many levels of experience in non-profit financial management, years of campus support and labor relations work, makes me uniquely qualified for this position.
As unit four employees we will continue to strive to provide an excellent educational experience for the CSU students despite decreasing resources. On every campus, we are being asked to take on more students, more responsibilities, and to add more tasks to our position descriptions with little or no additional compensation. We kept the university running and our students on track during the pandemic at a very personal cost for many of us. Our next campaign is to return the step system to the CSU and to demand that Unit 4 employees are given the recognition and pay we deserve.
The APC members are some of the most dedicated, caring, and giving professionals I have had the privilege to work with as my colleagues on the Fullerton campus, and as a member of the APC Executive Board. Working on your behalf has been a personally rewarding and worthwhile experience and if re-elected, I pledge to continue to uphold the rights of the CSU unit four employees and to support the members of APC. I thank you for your continued support and trust.
Candidate for Recording Secretary
Rose Duran
CANDIDATE FOR APC RECORDING SECRETARY 2023-2026 Term
I have represented you as your APC Recording Secretary for the past seven years and I believe my accomplishments make me the best candidate to continue to represent you on the APC Executive Board. I will continue to make it my priority to improve communications between the leadership and campus chapters. I have been an advocate for transparency and open communication and will work diligently to represent all members to ensure the needs are heard and addressed.
As a member of the Executive Board I am involved in the daily and overall operations statewide and this exposure has given me insight of the needs of the union. I will continue my efforts to engage the CSU Board of Trustees in advocating for Unit 4 employees.
During the past three years, I have served as Chair of the Organizing Committee and am dedicated to protecting the rights and interests of workers and advocating for fair treatment and compensation. I have also fostered a closer relationship with the other CSU unions as well as manage communications between our CSU Joint Labor Council.
I have a deep passion for labor rights and have been a part of the APC Bargaining team that successfully negotiated and advocate for workers rights’. I am excited to bring my passion for advocacy and commitment to labor rights to this position. I was responsible for editing and proof reading our successor contracts during my tenure as Recording Secretary and have become very familiar with the content of all of the articles. The upkeep of our contract is of utmost importance as this is the record of all negotiations and agreements between our Union and the CSU, and it captures all of our gains.
I believe together, we can make a positive difference for workers and their families and I am eager to continue bringing my skills and experience to all aspects of the Recording Secretary functions. I am asking you for your vote to continue serving and supporting you in this role for the next three years.
In Union,
Rose Duran