Take action to
stop program cuts & layoffs!

Staff at the California Academy of Sciences formed a union last year and are currently negotiating their first contract. Recently, the Academy's executive director Scott Sampson announced that the Academy is facing an $8.7 million budget deficit and needs to slash $4 million in labor costs. 

Where are Academy executives looking for savings? Not from Sampson's lavish executive compensation package which totals nearly $825,000, despite the Academy’s dire financial straits. Not from executive compensation at all, even though those costs have ballooned from 5% of the labor budget in 2007 to 10% today. Not from the 11 new HR positions with unclear responsibilities they have created since their staff unionized and which represent $2 million in labor costs – half of the labor costs they say they must cut.

No. Instead, they will be cutting programs critical to the mission of the Academy. Specifically, all programs that serve educators, including Bayview Science Institute, publicly available teacher workshops, Science Action Club, and all other teacher support are being eliminated, as well as the live presenters for the hugely popular planetarium shows who provide an engaging human experience to complement the shows and spark curiosity and enthusiasm about science.

Cutting these programs is a missed opportunity to identify and develop solutions from those who deliver the Academy's programs to the public every day. It is also a violation of labor law. 

Our demands are clear: Academy executives must share the details of their budget, and then commit to negotiating solutions in good faith, rather than insisting on moving ahead with unilateral actions that flout the clearly expressed intention of Academy employees to engage in collective bargaining.

Poor financial stewardship of the Academy must not be compounded by cutting mission-critical programming. Stand with Academy workers in fighting these cuts and layoffs!