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Dear Colleagues,

Below is an announcement of a tentative contract settlement (!), plus important information on the Governor’s initiatives against education, action needed on full social security for teachers and two scholarships available to AFT members’ families.

Tentative Agreement Reached in Contract Negotiations!

We are very pleased to announce that last night we finally reached a tentative agreement with the District on a new contract. We will present the complete details of the agreement at college forums and in the Advocate right after we return from Spring Break, but we want to give you an outline of the main points of the new contract here before we all leave for the Break.

* All faculty will receive a 2.75% salary increase, retroactive to July 2004

* Those faculty on column 8 of the salary schedule (almost half of all full-time faculty) will receive an extra 1% increase. (This column was shown to be significantly lower than other Bay Area districts.)

* The medical cap will be increased to significantly reduce out-of-pocket costs to those who cover one or more dependents (lowered to about $40/mo. for those on Kaiser), while maintaining no-cost coverage for those who cover themselves only. Specifically, the medical cap will increase (retroactive to January 1, 2005) to:

$604/mo. for those with employee-only coverage (Kaiser is $355/mo.)
$670/mo. for those with employee-plus-one-dependent coverage (Kaiser is $710/mo.)
$883/mo. for those with employee-plus-two-or-more coverage (Kaiser is $923/mo.)

* Part-time faculty will have strengthened contract language on “load seniority” (giving greater assurance that they will continue to be assigned the same or similar faculty load)

Other improvements were achieved in faculty intellectual property rights, counselor and librarian working conditions, personal necessity leave, sabbatical leave, additional compensation for large classes and an additional pay increase for those faculty in columns 1 through 4.

We will announce the times of the college forums on the contract and the faculty vote on the contract after Spring Break.

Overview of the Governor's Initiative Assault on Education and Unions

Gov. Schwarzenegger has announced that he intends to call a special election in November 2005. He is touting a package of proposals and his allies among big business and right-wing groups have proposed yet additional items. In response, labor and consumer groups have filed a series of initiatives. In total, more than 80 initiatives have been filed. Most are now with the Attorney General for review prior to circulation. Some have already begun circulating.

The stakes are extremely high because Schwarzenegger has allied himself with President Bush in his effort to privatize pensions and reduce public services. He is also directly attacking labor as part of a strategy to get himself a friendlier legislature.

Last week, Governor Schwarzenegger and his business allies started circulating several anti-worker initiatives for the ballot:

One is the Privatization of the Public Pension system. — Starting in 2007, no new government employees would be eligible for pensions. This includes STRS, PERS, and the University of California system. Instead, employees would be provided 401K style “defined contribution” plans. It puts our public pension system at risk and won’t save taxpayers a dime.

Another is the Paycheck Deception measure. This is a rehash of an initiative that business tried and failed to pass in 1998 – the so-called “union dues check-off” initiative (formerly Prop 226). It is intended to silence the voice of public sector union members in politics and prevent us from participating in the political process.

Other Schwarzenegger-backed initiatives include:

Spending Cap — Tightens the cap on total state spending, ends protections for schools and colleges under Proposition 98, and triggers automatic across the board cuts when revenue drops. This would dramatically reduce the money going to education. It would also lead to a drop in funding for a wide range of social services.

Teacher Merit Pay — Mandates that local districts pay teachers based on merit. Authority is given to local school boards to implement.

Redistricting — Would require a mid-decade redistricting. Three retired judges would draw the new legislative boundaries. This is seen as a partisan power grab because, by law, redistricting occurs only every ten years after the census.

Another initiative that is apparently coming soon will concern the teacher probationary period. This will extend from two to five years the period during which K-12 teachers may be dismissed for no reason.

These initiatives are bad news for all Californians and are direct attacks to weaken our unions. Schwarzenegger and his business allies will spend millions to collect signatures for the ballot to try to “reform” government by attacking the people who work for the public. Petitioners have been gathering signatures for these initiatives at Skyline and possibly at CSM and Cañada as well. Feel free to engage the signature gatherers in debate, but DON’T SIGN ANY OF THESE PETITIONS UNTIL YOU KNOW MORE!

The CFT is already working in coalition with other groups to fight these initiatives and possibly to place counter-initiatives on the ballot.

For more on Schwarzenegger’s attacks on public employees, see information on our Local’s website at: http://aft1493.org/ccbudget.html#arnold

For more information on how you can get involved, contact the AFT office at x6491 or email: Kaplan@smccd.net .

Action needed March 17 on HR 147, full social security pensions for educators

Have you had more than one career in your life? Have you contributed to Social Security in another career and are now contributing to STRS?

Under current federal law members of CalSTRS and other teacher pension plans throughout the country are currently prevented from collecting their full Social Security pension and STRS retirement benefits. A provision of the Social Security law known as

WEP (Windfall Elimination Provision) lowers the amount of teachers' Social Security pensions if they collect a public pension, such as a CalSTRS pension, in addition to Social Security. Another provision of the law, the Government Pension Offset (GPO), reduces a surviving spouse's share of their Social Security benefits as well.

At any time - but particularly on March 17 - please contact your congressional representative by email or by phone with a message such as the one below. We want to flood congressional offices with this message on that day, but we also don't want to let the matter drop after March 17. We need the current law to be changed, or we will find ourselves collecting far less than the two half-pensions we will have earned.

Currently there is a bill in the House, HR 147, introduced by "Buck" McKeon and Howard Berman, to eliminate these unfair provisions.

Sample Message:

Congressman/woman <insert first and last name>: I am a constituent of yours and I'm contacting you today to urge you to cosponsor HR 147, introduced by Congressmen Howard "Buck" McKeon and Howard Berman to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset penalties from Social Security. I am a teacher who will be affected by these penalties. They will have a major impact on my standard of living. I've worked hard all my life and believe I deserve equal treatment by Social Security. These penalties will also hurt California's efforts to recruit needed teachers because most people cannot afford to give up half or all of their expected Social Security income in order to become a public school teacher. Please co-sponsor HR 147 and work to see that it is adopted in this session of Congress.

Please contact one or more local Congress members, including:

Anna Eshoo, anagram@mail.house.gov , (650) 323-2984

Tom Lantos, http://lantos.house.gov/HoR/CA12/Contact+Tom/ (650) 342-0300

Nancy Pelosi, sf.nancy@mail.house.gov , (415) 556-4862

Mike Honda, mike.honda@mail.house.gov , (408) 558-8085

Barbara Lee, barbara.lee@mail.house.gov , (510) 763-0370

Zoe Lofgren, zoe.lofgren@mail.house.gov , (408) 271-8700

George Miller, george.miller@mail.house.gov , (925) 602-1880

"Pete" Stark, petemail@stark.house.gov , (510) 494-1388

Applications due for 2005 scholarships

Apply today for the AFT’s 2005 Robert G. Porter Scholars Program. Under the program, four $8000 scholarships are awarded to graduating seniors and $1000 grants are given to union members who are continuing their education. The competition is open to all AFT members and the children of AFT members who will be graduating from high school in 2005. Application forms are available online at www.aft.org/aftplus/scholarships. Applications must be submitted by March 31, 2005, to receive consideration.

The California Labor Federation and its affiliated unions will award scholarships of $2000 to high school seniors throughout California this year. Any graduating senior from a California high school who plans to enroll in an accredited college or technical school in 2005 is eligible. Applicants must write an essay of no more than 1000 words describing a significant impact that unions have had in the last 50 years and how your community has benefited from it. The deadline is April 15, 2005. For an application form and a list of suggested resource materials, check online at www.calaborfed.org/Scholarship2005.htm.

Have a great Spring Break!

Katharine Harer and Joaquin Rivera,
AFT 1493 Co-Presidents

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