Ray's "faculty contract alert"

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FACULTY CONTRACT ALERT!

From: Ray Chandos
To: unabauer
Date: Thu, Aug 11, 2011 10:40 pm


FACULTY CONTRACT ALERT
DID YOU KNOW THAT 75 OF YOUR COLLEAGUES WILL GET NO RAISE IN THE CURRENT CONTRACT?
IS THIS FAIR???
SHOULDN’T EVERYONE GET THE SAME RAISE???
WE JUST WANT FAIRNESS FOR ALL FACULTY.
DETAILS BELOW:

To: SOCCCD faculty members

From: Faculty members sold out by our union negotiators in the current contract tentative agreement (Ray Chandos, Michael Channing, Sharon MacMillan, Mike Merrifield, Sherry Miller-White, Ken Woodward)

The Faculty Association negotiating team has signed a tentative agreement with the administration which excludes over seventy-five faculty members from the salary increase given to all other faculty members in the form of step advancement. This blatant discriminatory exclusion is a shocking first in the history of our district. Faculty members at the top of the columns have spent an entire career on a salary schedule which encouraged the acceptance of lower wages early on in return for a promise of a better retirement. After these faculty members have finally reached the highest step, the union has now devised and implemented a plan which breaks that promise. The union has not even had the courtesy to negotiate a grandfather provision. The union has negotiated a one time, off-the-schedule approximately one thousand dollar check for these faculty members and is asking them to vote for a three-year contract with no other monetary incentive. The union leadership does not care that this contract will have a devastating effect on the retirement and lives of these faculty members. In a secretive and divisive move, the union leadership is forcing a quick vote asking the remaining faculty to vote themselves a raise by approving the contract which excludes and insults long time employees. It seems that the District and union collaborators have found the money for everything else they want except for this segment of the faculty. In fact money is not the issue at all. The union leadership says the district is worried about the public perception. Apparently the District is not worried about the public perception of administrators’ salaries and spending projects and all the other monetary provisions of the contract which are public information anyway. The District, as always, is just trying to spend less money in the classroom and apparently the union leadership has bought into their arguments and decided to sell out a big chunk of their membership. Certainly the District appreciates the union’s consent to give only part of the faculty raises. Earlier the union leaders ignored pleas not to support the retirement incentive the District asked them to request until the District agreed to leave the money saved in the classroom. The union leadership ignored pleas last spring to do their legally mandated duty of fair representation for all bargaining unit members. This is the most blatantly unfair, lopsided and discriminatory contract ever negotiated. Not only are there unfair salary proposals, but discriminatory lab compensation decisions were made arbitrarily by the union leadership. Many faculty are confused about what the contract means for them. We are requesting that the union leadership provide a list specifying the monetary incentive each faculty member will receive in this negotiations round. Hypothetical cases for example: Alden, Beverly $35,000 (from step advancement multiplied by years collected plus increased reassigned time for Faculty Association leadership) Hughes, Bob $130,000 (from retirement incentive, changes in part time compensation, increased union reassigned time) Norris, Mary $1,000 (from the bad luck of being a second class citizen under the current contract negotiations for salary and lab compensation) If the Faculty Association would provide such a list, every voting faculty member could not only review the monetary benefits he/she would receive but could also see how his/her vote on this contract will affect all colleagues. It is unfortunate that the union negotiating team decided to exclude a large segment of the faculty from representation instead of negotiating a grandfather provision elevating the compensation of this group in a way equivalent to other faculty members. It is a cavalier misuse of power for the union leadership to arbitrarily decide who gets salary and lab compensation. It is amazing that the team would sign away the rights of people they are legally bound to defend.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS The Faculty Association negotiating team has told us that is necessary to stiff (or discriminate against) experienced faculty members because the Trustees insist on it in order to protect their political images. Miraculously, the Trustees are unconcerned about the political appearance of increasing reassigned time for union leadership to 60 OSH (the Faculty Association worked for decades on 20 OSH). Recent investigations so far have found that ALL sources blamed by the union leadership for the current contract disaster (such as CTA advice, the District administration, and the Board of Trustees) contend that the SOCCCD union negotiating team itself promoted and wants this contract. Why would the union leadership intentionally sell out certain groups of faculty? Why did union leaders blatantly ignore the pleas of faculty members last spring? We can only speculate about individual union leaders’ motivations which could cause them to place self interest or personal, ideologically-based positions above benefits for the faculty as a whole. ALL faculty will some day reach the top of a column. This is a very dangerous precedent to set for all faculty.

WHAT CAN WE DO? It is possible to reverse this state of affairs. Although the fact that the union team has already signed the agreement to sell us out makes it much more difficult, it is possible to reverse the egregious decision. It is possible to make this contract work for all faculty. We must convince the union negotiating team to cancel the vote on this untenable contract and return to the table to negotiate (WITH SUPERVISION) for the interests of all their bargaining unit members.