San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT 1493


Minutes of
General Membership/Executive Committee Meeting

February 14, 2007, Skyline College

 

Present: Eric Brenner, Ron Brown, Alma Cervantes, Chip Chandler, Victoria Clinton, Dave Danielson, Rick Hough, Dan Kaplan, John Kirk, Yaping Li, Sandi Raeber, Joaquin Rivera, Ernie Rodriguez, Anne Stafford, Elizabeth Terzakis

 

Meeting began at 2:20

Facilitator:  Rick Hough

 

 

1.         Welcome and Introductions

 

2.         Statements from AFT members on Non-Agenda Items

 

Ž    Elizabeth had requested that the EC consider supporting a resolution regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in San Mateo County. Because she was not present for the first part of the meeting, we talked about it briefly and agreed to put it on the March agenda. The main question/concern people had about it was the second “Resolved” clause, which states that AFT 1493 would “request that the Office of Education join AFT 1493 in a joint delegation to local Department of Homeland Security Offices expressing this opposition and demanding an end to ICE raids in the Bay Area . . .” Though we generally supported the resolution, we were not ready to commit to this particular action.

 

3.         Minutes of the January 24 EC meeting:

 

Approved

 

4.         P/T Office Hours issue:

 

The District has been working on the conversion to an in-house payroll system, but P/T pay hasn’t been a priority. The District says it will not be ready to fully implement P/T office hour pay until June 2007 and will try to get out a retro check by March 2007.

 

This issue relates to #9 on the agenda. (Adding minutes to TU/TH classes update): Joaquin distributed copies of a proposal from AFT to the District, stating that AFT would agree “to add 5 minutes to all classes that meet 1.5 hours two days per week for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 academic years.” Joaquin asked that Harry Joel let him know what the Board decided at their 2/14/07 meeting. (Refer to Joaquin’s email for details.)

 

Regarding #5 in Joaquin’s email (“The District guarantees that for the 2007-08 and 20008-09 academic years faculty will not get less than a 4% total compensation increase.”), Joaquin suspects that the District may agree to a floor of 4% but will also insist on a ceiling of about 4.5%, which is what CSEA and AFSCME are getting.

           

5.         Grievances:

 

Ž    Arbitration on Part-Time Seniority:

 

John characterized the results of the arbitration of the case of a P/T faculty member who filed a grievance after being passed over for classes despite having seniority as “bizarre.” Though the arbitrator agreed the contract had been violated, she determined that even if the Dean had followed the correct procedures, the outcome might have been the same. The grievant, therefore, was awarded nothing.

 

The arbitration is advisory only. AFT can appeal to the Board; John is willing to do the appeal himself.  If the Board agrees to anything, it will weaken their decision. In the past, AFT has going along with every arbitration decision, and the Board has gone along with all but one.

 

*See the March issue of The Advocate for further details.

 

Ž    Unfair Labor Practice Charge and Grievance for P/T librarians:

Though the Chancellor agreed that P/T librarians should be given semester length contracts, the head of the library has apparently not yet been made aware of his position. At CSM P/T librarians do not have contracts.

 

Also, one P/T librarian (the one with the most seniority) has been given fewer hours than others.

 

Ž    Professional Development Committees:

The District has been taking back 2/3 of the uncommitted funds, rather than returning to the Committees everything except funds over 1/3 the original amount. (See also agenda item #10.)

 

6.         Negotiations discussion:

 

In the next round of negotiations, we can negotiate up to 3 non-economic items. Joaquin will work with Eric on conducting an online survey to find out what issues are most important to faculty, and will try to have a draft by our March meeting.

 

What constitutes “non-economic” is not totally clear.  For instance, Ernie mentioned supporting two nurses (one at CSM and one at Canada). They have been left behind in recent contract negotiations. Harry Joel agreed to change their hours from 37.5 to 30 (to match librarians and counselors) if their campuses would support them, but the two campuses said “no” due to scheduling difficulties. Though this might be considered an economic issue, the cost is relatively small.

 

7.         Canada AFT appointments:

 

Ž    Elizabeth Terzakis will replace Karen Olesen, who is on leave this semester.

Ž    Linda Haley will be the AFT Representative to Canada’s Planning & Budget Committee.

Ž    Monica Malamud will be the AFT Representative to Canada’s Presidential Search Committee.

 

8.         Skyline Grievance Training Workshop:

 

To be held at Skyline February 28, it will be announced in The Advocate. CSM will hold a grievance training in March.

 

9.         Adding minutes to TU/TH classes update:

 

See #4

 

10.       Professional Development issues:

 

Harry Joel agreed that AFT’s interpretation of the contract, and how uncommitted funds are supposed to be handled is correct, but the situation has not been remedied yet. (See also #5, Grievance Report.) This could be an item for the contract re-opener.

 

11.       Distance Education Advisory Committee (DEAC) update:

 

Monthly meetings are continuing. 

 

Tentative schedule: DEAC will choose a platform this spring, and support staff will be trained this summer. Faculty who will be using the platform will receive training in the fall (2007), and will start to use the platform in spring 2008.

 

Potential issue/problems:

Ž    Administration still sees this (distance education) as a money-maker. They seem to think support will be provided by the vendor or by CTL. They have talked about paying faculty for only the first course they develop.

Ž    Administration seems unaware of copyright issues and class size issues.

Ž    How will faculty be trained and compensated?

Ž    The EC is worried about the process going ahead without real negotiations between the District and AFT (similar to our concerns about the Concurrent Enrollment Initiative).

 

Joaquin will draft a letter to the District/Harry Joel requesting a meeting to discuss issues related to DEAC and Concurrent Enrollment.

 

 

12.       AFT Website redesign:

 

Give Alma any suggestions. She will take a group photo at our next meeting. She would also like the names of any faculty willing to have photos taken to include on the website.

 

13.       Online questionnaire discussion (combining 3 sets of polling questions on: USLAW, Online education, and Workload):

 

The majority of EC members feel we should limit surveys/questionnaires to a single issue, perhaps doing one per month. In support of doing these surveys, Elizabeth said that Ernie’s SLO poll and following article in The Advocate really got conversations going at Canada, whose Social Science Department wrote a statement refusing to write/submit SLO’s for individual courses. They did write Departmental SLO’s that they are confident cannot be turned into any kind of standardized test questions.

 

Topics for future surveys:

Ž    Online classes

Ž    USLAW

Ž    Compressed calendar

Ž    Workload issues

 

14.       Mike Nye endorsement for CFT Secretary-Treasurer?

 

Mike Nye is currently the CFT Secretary-Treasurer. The upcoming election will be the first contested election in many years. Mike is being challenged by Dennis Smith, the current President of FACCC, whom Joaquin believes tends to be pro-management.

 

Joaquin feels Mike has done a very good job, though they don’t always agree.

 

Ernie will contact Mike to request a statement from him, and to let him know that we might support him, but are concerned that he hasn’t implemented the will of the 2005 CFT convention regarding the desire of Formula Funded Staff to organize and participate in the CFT group health plan, which is much better than what they currently have.

 

15.       Open discussion/meeting critique:

 

Ž    The Chancellor’s and Vice Chancellors’ contracts will be approved at tonight’s Board meeting.

Ž    Elizabeth agreed that we could carry her resolution over to the March meeting. She is willing to go to the Department of Homeland Security Offices, but would like someone to go with her. Rick and Ernie said they would consider joining her. She would also like suggestions for revising the language of the resolution.

 

Meeting adjourned: 4:10 (Yes, it’s true; we ended early!)

 

 

Submitted by Anne Stafford

 



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