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San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT 1493

Minutes of
General Membership/Executive Committee Meeting
of May 18, 2005

 

 

Members Present: Dan Kaplan, Kathleen Feinblum, Katharine Harer, Victoria Clinton, Joaquin Rivera, Eric Brenner, Teeka James, James Kirk, Ernie Rodriguez, Karen Olesen, Sandy Raeber, Chip Chandler

 

Guests: David Burruto, District Director from Assemblyman Leland Y.

Yee’s office and Victoria Zhou, staff assistant

 

Meeting was called to order at: 2:30

Minutes were approved.

 

NON-AGENDA ITEMS

 

2 Iraqi labor activists will be giving a talk on the current situation for workers in Iraq. The event, sponsored by US Labor Against the War, will be at St. Joseph the Worker church in Berkeley on Sunday, June 19 from 6:45-9, 1640 Addison.

 

On May 25, there will be a CFT sponsored march in Sacramento. Buses will leave from City College in San Francisco at 1:15 and return by 7:30.

 

PRESENTATION: David Burruto, and Victoria Zhou from Assemblyman Leland Y. Yee’s office.

 

David Burruto and Victoria Zhou, representatives for Assemblyman Leland Y. Yee, wanted to find out from the AFT the most pressing issues facing community colleges.

 

Joaquin Rivera highlighted the 3 biggest issues as the following: 1) Governor Schwarzenegger, in his May revise budget, is not honoring his promise to increase school funding after a one-year moratorium.  2) There is a concern about the move to repeal Proposition 98. In addition, even with Prop. 98 funds split between K-12 and community colleges, the community colleges have gotten well below their fair share. 3) The governor’s proposal to shift STRS to local districts will have a huge impact on teachers.

 

Other concerns include how funding cuts are affecting part-timers in the community college. Office hour pay, health benefits and equity funds are suffering due to lack of funds. In fact, the community college is the least funded of all educational institutions, yet we are asked to do more. Fees have gone up, which makes student access an issue. The EC expressed the hope that if the anti-union initiatives get on the ballot for the special election, (if we have one), that Assemblyman Yee get involved in the bills’ defeat.

 

David Barruto responded supportively to the EC concerns. He reported that Assemblyman Yee supports Proposition 98 and has organized a petition drive to that effect. In general, Schwarzenegger’s popularity has plummeted and the public isn't so enthusiastic about such an expensive “special election”. The Democrats have been backing down from speaking out against Schwarzenegger, but now that the governor has not been forthcoming about major key issues, the Democrats have a good chance to push their agenda.

 

CO-PRESIDENTS’ REPORT - Joaquin Rivera

 

Richard Holober is running for assemblyman and for the San Mateo Community College Board. He would like a contribution from the AFT to list on a June report itemizing the campaign funds of the prospective Assembly candidates. As Holober has been supportive of the AFT, the EC has proposed contributing $2000 to his campaign.

 

Proposed allocation of release time for 2005-06 was distributed. The one adjustment made was that the campus chair of Canada College receives 3 hours for both Fall 2005 and Spring 2006 for a total of 6 hours. Motion was approved to accept the change.

 

UNION WORK PLAN - Ernie Rodriguez

 

A motion was approved to accept the work plan goals.

 

DISTRICT GOVERNANCE COUNCIL REPORT - Katharine Harer

 

A new draft of the Mutual Respect Policy was passed out, and again, there was discussion on the language. The First Amendment violations are not present in this draft; however, much offensive behavior is are already against the law and therefore makes the policy moot. In the end, it was suggested that we have a forum and open up the Policy to campus-wide discussions.

 

DUES RESTRUCTURING – Dan Kaplan

 

Eric Brenner, Dan Kaplan and Katharine Harer have been working on a brochure on dues restructuring. The brochure will be sent out electronically. We may also hold a forum to get feedback. Ultimately, the plan is to send ballots to union members’ homes so they can vote on dues restructuring.

 

GRIEVANCES - JOHN KIRK

 

The grievance regarding the conflict between a nursing instructor and a student is still ongoing.

.

The chancellor refused to sign the class size/unfair labor practices settlement agreement, but PERP took the agreement to the county council and they signed off on it

 

DISTRICT BUDGET COMMITTEE

 

The State Budget Update was distributed. Estimated total revenue came to $95,262,400. Estimated Marginal Revenue/Deficit came to $1,572,717.

 

 

CAMPUS REPORT

 

At CSM and Canada there has been a dramatic improvement on letting faculty make decisions regarding their office furniture.

 

We need to reinitiate a survey to find out how committee work is distributed. Members of small departments especially, suffer from an overload of committee work. Perhaps some committees can be eliminated. Committee work distribution is both a work and a cost issue. If part-timers are being asked to participate in committees, they should be compensated.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 4:30

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen Feinblum 

  

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