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AFT CONTRACT ALERT:  PLEASE GIVE US YOUR FEEDBACK!

 

We are at a crucial juncture in negotiations.  After almost a full academic year of bargaining for salary, benefits and part-time office hours, we have narrowed the gap between what the District is offering and a fair settlement for faculty.  The District has insisted on a four-year settlement.  Although the AFT has concerns about this, we have worked hard and in good faith to find ways in which such an agreement would be beneficial for faculty and guarantee a fair compensation increase.  Unfortunately, on Wednesday the 26th, the District negotiators refused to discuss our last counterproposal with the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees and abruptly made the call to go to mediation.

 

Below are the District’s current offer and the AFT’s counterproposal, which was developed with the help of the AFT Executive Committee during a break in negotiations on April 26th:

 

Comparison of “Total Compensation” Proposals

 

 

District Proposal

AFT Counterproposal

2005-06

4.23% (3.23% in salaries)

4.23% (3.23% in salaries)

2006-07

5.8% (4.68% in salaries)

6.0% (4.88% in salaries)

2007-08

4.0% (2.88% in salaries)

5.0% (3.88% in salaries)

2008-09

4.0% (2.88% in salaries)

5.0% (3.88% in salaries)
or COLA + 1.5% (whichever is higher)

Total

18.03%
(13.67% in salaries)

20.23%
(15.87% in salaries)

 

In addition, the AFT proposed re-opening up to three articles for negotiation in each of the 2007-08 and 2008-09 years.

 

Although the District’s proposal amounts to an 18.03% increase over four years, it is a “total compensation” proposal, which means that the costs for maintaining current benefits and paying for part time office hours are included in the 18.03%. Broken down by allocation, the 18.03% over four years looks like this:

 

1.88%              Maintaining current benefits over four years (0.38% in the first year and 0.50% in years 2, 3 & 4)

2.47%              Beginning to fund part-time office hours over four years (0.62% per year)

13.67%            Increase in faculty salaries

-----------

18.03%            Total compensation package

 

Salary increases below COLA

 

The faculty salary increase (the money we take home to pay for housing, food, utilities) of 13.67% averages to 3.42% per year for the four-year contract period. This figure is well below COLA for 2005-06 (COLA = 4.23%) and 2006-07 (COLA = 5.8%), and no one knows at this point what COLA will be for the subsequent two years of the District’s proposed four-year contract settlement (although predictions and trends seem to indicate that they will be above 3.5%).

 

The AFT Executive Committee’s based its counterproposal on the following concerns:

·        A four-year settlement will lock us in and make it impossible (or difficult) to negotiate any section of the contract from 2006 through 2009.

·        The District is offering less than COLA in salary increases.

·        Considering the risk of inflation and uncertain economic conditions in the future, the District’s offer is not good enough to warrant closing the contract for the next three years.

·        The AFT counterproposal provides extra security in the fourth year in case the cost of living continues to rise. 

 

The AFT negotiating team and our Executive Committee are concerned that salary increases that are below COLA—especially at a time when so many of us are doing large amounts of uncompensated work outside of the classroom in areas such as Accreditation, Program Review, SLOs, and so on—will not keep our salaries competitive nor keep up with the increasing prices of gas and utilities, for example. 

 

The Positives

 

On the positive side, our efforts at the table have moved the District in many areas. We have made significant progress from the 0% initially proposed by the District. In addition, after many years of refusing to do so, the District has finally agreed to negotiate the issue of part-time office hours  (which will be phased in over the four years of the agreement with the goal being to pay part-timers at the special rate for one office hour for every three hours of teaching). The District also has agreed to increase the medical cap in each year of the contract agreement to ensure that faculty on the two-party or family Kaiser plans will continue to pay only $40 out of pocket per month.

 

Given the District’s position, it seems as if we are heading to mediation in order to get a settlement for faculty that is better than the District’s last offer. What do you think? This is your contract! We want to hear from you. Please reply to this e-mail and let us know your views on this subject.

 

In Unity,

 

Joaquin Rivera, Co-President and AFT Chief Negotiator
Katharine Harer, Co-President and negotiating team member
Vicky Clinton, Cañada Part-timer Rep and negotiating team member

Pease either respond to the sender, AFT Chief Negotiator Joaquin Rivera, or to the Co-Chapter Chairs on your campus. For faculty at CSM, send your response to Teeka James (james@smccd.net) or Yaping Li (liy@smccd.net); for faculty at Skyline College, send your response to Chip Chandler (chandler@smccd.net) or Rick Hough (hough@smccd.net); for faculty at Cañada College, send your response to Karen Olesen (olesen@smccd.net) or Monica Malamud (malamudm@smccd.net).