Cal Academy Workers United enlist support of Valkyries fans in fight against layoffs
They brought out a giant Claude puppet, handed out hundreds of flyers, and gathered petition signatures at the game
Monday, May 25, was the Memorial Day holiday, but members of the Cal Academy Workers United chapter of SEIU 1021 were busy organizing nonetheless. They gathered outside the Chase Center to leaflet fans on their way into the Valkyries game to share what’s happening at the Academy and ask them to sign their petition against layoffs.
“We handed out hundreds of flyers to Valkyries fans who were dismayed to hear that Academy executives would rather throw staff experience in the trash than cut their own outrageously inflated pay,” said member Ian Hart who participated in the action and spoke to KQED News about it.
Their community petition against the layoffs has been signed by over 1000 people in just a week.
Just today, the San Francisco Standard published a story detailing years of mismanagement, misplaced priorities, and poor financial stewardship that left the institution spending far too much on debt repayment and executive salaries while cutting mission-critical programming and laying off line staff.
Executive Director Scott Sampson, who oversaw a 90% drop in new gifts to the Academy’s endowment fund and slashed programs and jobs while still raking in extravagant pay and bonuses ($885,000 last year, including a $125,000 bonus), abruptly resigned May 14. Managing director Amber Mace has been appointed interim executive director by the board of trustees.
“We believe this was the correct first step in order to restore an Academy leadership structure which puts the people who enact the Academy’s mission first,” said CAWU President Teddy Vollman, who is on the layoff list. ”We look forward to working with a new team which will collaborate with us to find alternatives to layoffs and preserve this beloved San Francisco institution.
“We’ve done the math and have determined that Sampson’s salary alone could fund 11 of the positions on the layoff list. We know that there are alternatives to layoffs. Cutting the programs and staff that make the Academy the beloved institution it has been for nearly two centuries is not a way forward. We will keep fighting to keep our jobs but also to keep the Academy true to its mission to regenerate the natural world through science, learning, and collaboration.”