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In attendance: Teeka James, John Kirk, Rick Hough, Joaquin Contreras-Rivera, Katharine Harer, Eric Brenner, Ernie Rodriguez, Victoria Clinton, Romy Thiele, Yapig Li, Karen Olesen, Suzanne Russell, Katharine Harer, Nina Floro, Annie Nichols.

Guest: Richard Holober

ENDORSEMENT OF RICHARD HOLOBER

Richard Holober was the guest presenter. In 4 years, he is planning to run for the 19th Assembly District seat and was seeking AFT endorsement. Some of the highlights of his presentation were as follows: He spent his whole adult life fighting for working people and labor unions. He was involved in student protests during the 60's and 70's. He worked for the California Labor Federation as a political organizer and lobbyist. He ran the State Legislative campaign to reinstate 8 hour day. He worked on behalf of the California Nurses Association and now has consulting business which includes the CNA. He believes that our society does not have needed balance for democracy to work and that working people need power in the legislative process. He promises to be an aggressive campaigner for the working class. He knows the ins and outs of Sacramento. His wife is mayor of Millbrae and he will have a lot of early support because a lot of people know him. He already has tentative support of the UFCW.

He responded to questions from the EC. Some are as follows:

Dan: You were very successful in rounding up union support in the past. Will you be this successful?

Richard H: I was able to get local unions help with Prop 208. I hope to do the same again.

Dan: There are proposed changes in the "mutual respect policy" from the district shared governance committee which can include some academic freedom issues.

Richard H: I don't really have an opinion yet; we need more feedback. We need to balance academic freedom with diversity sensitivity.

John K: where did this "mutual respect clause" come from? What motivated this?

Richard H: This issue came up through comments a professor at CSM made regarding the Palestinian Israeli conflict.

Additional comments in regards to the clause were expressed, raising concern over the language of this clause. In the light of the Patriot Act, restricted speech, and civil liberties violations, this issue needs to be approached with caution.

Teeka: What is your policy toward health care, women and gay issues?

Richard H: I support the single payer health plan as does the CNA. The health care system as we know it does not work. As long as the profit motive is there, health care will remain a problem. I also support gay marriage and would support a change in the state law. I have always supported a woman's right to choose.

Teeka: subsidized childcare is always based on state-wide averages. Some parents earn "too much money" to get free child care but the cost of living is so much higher here and the calculations are based on a national wage scale.

Richard H: I support universal pre-kindergarten child care. One problem is that child care workers are so underpaid. I believe in progressive taxation and that corporations need to pay a higher amount. We are not a high tax state.

Joaquin: What committees would you like to be on if elected?

Richard H: The Labor Committee; Education and Higher Ed. Committee; the Banking Committee; the Judiciary committee because people's rights to have their day in court are being threatened.

Victoria: What is happening with childcare at Canada?

Richard H: I don't know what is happening. They are trying to privatize it because it would have been cheaper.

John K: There were state funds but the funds were taken to build a university center. They said "there wasn't a demand for the child care center" which is hogwash.

Romy: There were no general funds to maintain the center so it closed.

Joaquin: A quick comment on the article "Unions call community college district top-heavy" from the April 20 Independent.

Richard H: The article was selective in that they compared our district, but they didn't go far enough in investigating the particulars. You do have a board which is pro-union and supportive of the AFT. It is also true with our chancellor. The best way to deal with the issue is to talk it through. What are the numbers? That's a better way, rather than just go by the newspaper article.

After Richard Holober left, the EC Committee moved to endorsee Richard Holober for the assembly seat of the 19th District.

MINUTES

Minutes were approved.

***********************************************************NEGOTIATIONS

Joaquin gave the negotiations report. The board's general response to initial proposal was that they want more flexibility, but the response was rushed, rather than analyzed. When they sit down and read it more thoroughly, we will be able to see more clearly their reaction.

Katharine: Why did they want to eliminate equal implementation of PT salaries?

Dan: They don't have the software or the time to do it.

Joaquin: They were concerned because it would be hard to get the money back for the first month if the class was cancelled. Also, there is no computer program for shortened courses.

The Part-timers from the EC committee said they wanted to go back to original distribution.

Katharine: Perhaps we could have an informal vote in the Advocate.

Dan: Why can't the district trust part-timers to give back the money. CCSF has equal distribution.

Dan: Some good news is that COLA went up from 1.83 to 2.4 percent.

Teeka: There are no changes to sick leave - are they saying no or are they rewriting the definition of personal leave?

Joaquin: I'm not sure what the board's objections are because they haven't been discussed.

Negotiations will probably start over the summer. A lot of the negotiations are on non economic issues.

John K: District is expected to go into basic aid, so the district will have more money; that way, they can cut program and not lose money.

EC members reported concerns colleagues had over the contract proposal. Some concerns voiced were: 1) Have we prioritized issues in the proposal? 2) Can we do more for people who are retiring soon? 3) AFT got 2 calls of people in health issue. One caller wanted the cap raised, the other wanted it lowered. 3) Some people are concerned that some people were abusing the rights of post retirement. 4) There was concern about the senority of Full-timers over part-timers in summer classes and overloads. Joaquin said that we did put forward that people don't lose senority if they lost classes. This language serves more people. 5) What is the cost of the sabbaticals? The cost is in the process of being calculated. The reason for receiving 80% of pay was so that the 20% leftover could be used to fund a sabbatical. At CSM, they are taking the 20% and giving it to the district. 5) Romy wanted to know if there was language for class size. Joaquin responded that the language isn't in the proposal because everyone's needs are different.

Katharine: We have been contacted by Fickworth, a consultant who works with unions. The consultant has worked in the negotiations of several community colleges in southern California.

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LETTER WRITING CAMPAIGN

Katharine H. proposed a letter writing campaign to urge legislators in Sacramento not to increase enrollment fees. We can encourage our students to participate.

NEXT MEETING

Last meeting of Spring 04 will be at Skyline on May 12 in instead of May 26.

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BOOKSTORE COMMITTEE REPORT - KAREN OLESEN

Last meeting was last Thursday. There was a debate whether services would be improved if Follet and Barnes and Noble replaced in-house management. Though CSM has poor in-house services, Craig Blake would rather fix the problem from within. The students, Academic Senate (?) and the AFT are all against outsourcing. Private companies would jack up prices, furnish very few used books, and hire non-union workers. This was the situation in West Valley.

We need a committee to oversee the district running of bookstore. The bond money will pay for the new bookstore construction.

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DISTRICT BUDGET COMMITTEE - JOHN KIRK

Budget allocation models used presently are four to five years old. We need new models which can take into account new programs.

Ernie: any tracking of use of bond money?

John: This committee is not overseeing committee. There is a bond overseeing committee.

Grievances: A part-timer was taken off seniority list at a 3 semester absence. Contract says part-timers can be removed from seniority list AFTER three semesters.

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ANNUAL AUDIT

Dan: We had our annual audit in order to be agency shop. The bottom line of auditor John Pulley's analysis is this: We were projected to be $50,000 in the hole this year. Previous year we were $35,000 short. Our predictions were accurate. We will let all faculty vote on contract but only union members will vote on restructuring the cap. Debate ensued whether the increase should be gradual or all at once. However, we still need to crunch more numbers.

Discussion is shelved until next meeting.

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Teeka: There was a ribbon cutting at CSM child care center.

Debate ensued whether we want board members at meetings. Decision was made that it would be good once in a while to engage them in a conversation regarding a specific point.

Katharine - Do we need a once-a-month union update via e-mail? We need to do it before semester is over. How about getting them primed for election of the local?

Ernie proposed a retreat item at the end of the year.

Meeting ended 4:40

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