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Present: Bess Chandler, John Kirk, Katharine Harer, George Goth,

Joaquin Rivera, Rick Hough, Romy Thiele, Karen Olesen, Victoria Clinton,

Annie Nichols, John Searle, Dan Kaplan

The meeting began at 2:43 pm.

The minutes of the meeting of Feb 27, 2002 were accepted.

Joaquin Rivera and Katharine Harer reported on negotiations.

There is little good news. The first bad news is that there has been no

movement on the 7-3-3% raise.

The Exec Committee was told the second bad news item would be much worse.

We had assumed that the 7-3-3% raise would be for all instructors, both

full and part-time and that, in addition, the part-time instructors

would receive the equity funds from the state in addition to that,

making their raise 14-3-3%

At the last negotiation session the District said that this was not to

be the case and that the 7% raise for the part-timers would be funded

out of the equity funds while the raise for the full-timers would come

out of other monies.

We immediately counted that this was, if not indeed illegal, it was

certainly not the intent of the legislation that started the program. In

addition, the sources the District was proposing to fund the raise out

of (COLA, equity and Partnership for Excellence monies) increased the

budget for payroll by 7.13%, not 7%.

A further matter was that District claimed the part-timers' pay was

already equitable, as it was, by their calculation, 81% of the full-time

pay. However, Joaquin Rivera has found an error in their calculations

and that the true number is 51% (there is a factor of 80% that they had

included twice).

That is where we stand today. CSEA has already agreed to the 7-3-3

proposal for their members.

We have informed the District that we no longer wish to engage in

interest based bargaining and were switching back to positional

bargaining, which means we will be able to consult with our members and

provide them with serious and informative updates.

Some additional background was provided on the part-time equity funds.

This had been a major legislative issue for the CFT and initial research

has not found any other district that has used the funds in this way.

A memorandum from the State Chancellor's Office that was an advisory on

the use of these funds was distributed. In particular it states that:

a) these funds are to be used first to assist districts in making

part-time compensation more comparable to full-time faculty compensation

for similar work; and

b) these funds shall not supplant the amount of resources each district

has used to compensate part-time faculty.

A full discussion of this issue ensured.

John Searle said that we should get out a flyer to the faculty on this

issue quickly and that silence hurt our cause.

Rich Hough said we should have additional information on our webpage.

Karen Olesen asked how the District reacted to our change back to

positional bargaining.

Joaquin Rivera said that when we were in the interested based mode we

had a facilitator from the state who has now taken on the role of

mediator. The two teams are now meeting in separate rooms. If there is

no movement and we can not accept their offer, we will have to declare

impasse and go to fact finding.

John Kirk said our strongest argument is the legal one. We have to

consult our lawyer to find out if the use of the equity money in this

fashion is illegal. Then we would have to decide if this was an unfair

labor practice or if we should file a suit.

George Goth said that the legality issued should be featured prominently

in the flyer.

Rich Hough asked if the part-timers got 14% and it was funded out of the

sources mentioned, what would be the raise for the full-timers. Joaquin

Rivera said it would be reduced to 5%.

George Goth asked if one of the issues the District wished to bargain

was the distribution of the equity funds (it was) and, if so, how could

they be disposed of in this fashion.

Beth Chandler said a member of the Board of Trustees had spoken to her

at some function and said she (Beth) should make known to the members of

the Exec that there is no more money this year.

Joaquin Rivera asked if the Exec felt we should fight this on principal.

John Kirk said we should hold campus meetings as well as getting a legal

opinion from our lawyer.

Dan Kaplan said that in the flyer we should emphasize that we have gone

to fact finding before and have won.

George Goth said that in the flyer we should explain why there has been

little communication with the faculty during negotiations (such

communication is not permitted in interest based negotiations).

John Searle said those planning on retiring this year will worry how it

will affect the base on which their retirement is calculated.

Annie Nichols asked that seeing we, and apparently even some members of

the District team, had been under the impression that the equity funds

were a separate item, had there been some sudden change in the

District's finances that caused the District to take this action.

Joaquin Rivera said he knew of none.

Dan Kaplan said he was concerned how the full-timers will respond if

there is a delay in getting the raise. He wondered if we could win them

over.

Victoria Clinton said she had been approached by three full-timers who

had, on their own, come to the conclusion that the equity funds could

possibly be used improperly and that they were offended.

Katharine Harer asked what kind of language should be used in the flyer.

Certainly the point that the full-timers would eventually get 7-3-3

should be made.

Joaquin Rivera said the faculty would be in full rebellion if the

District tried to take that away.

We will try to have the flyer in the mailboxes by April 8; the next

negotiation meeting is April 10.

Joaquin Rivera said that the mediator had presented an idea (which

Joaquin did not know if it came from him or from the District team).

Currently full-time instructors teaching an overload are paid on the

same pay scale as the part-timers. The mediator suggested setting up two

pay scales: one at the current level for full-timers, which would

receive the 7-3-3 increase, and a second scale for the part-timers,

which would be more like 10-3-3. Joaquin said it sounded to him like the

two tier proposal from last year.

Annie Nichols said that if this would be done, the deans would be

encouraged to offer full-timers overloads rather than hire part-timers,

who would be more expensive.

It was generally agreed that the two scale idea would be too divisive.

Annie Nichols pointed out that if the part-timers were to receive a

raise of greater than 7% (and we kept one scale) that the full-timers

who taught overloads or summer school or during intercession would also

get that raise. Approximately 25% of all full-timers fall into one of

these categories.

Joaquin Rivera said that if the District does not move on this issue, we

may have to call an emergency meeting of the Exec.

Rich Hough asked that the members of the Exec be kept informed of any

changes via e-mail.

Other methods of pressuring the board and the administration on this

issue were briefly discussed.

Beth Chandler said that in addition to the informational meetings, we

should also ask for time to discuss this at the faculty senate meetings.

It was agreed that we would do this.

John Kirk then discussed grievances.

The grievance on the assault by a student on a faculty member at CSM was

discussed with the Chancellor on Feb 12 and we were supposed to hear

back from him by Feb 28. We have heard nothing. We have appealed to the

Board of Trustees under the safety article in the contract (safety

issues do not go to arbitration) on March 21 but have heard nothing from

them. Faculty at CSM have circulated a petition asking for adequate

action on this and have forwarded it to the CSM president.

A grievance on class size at Canada was discussed. This is another one

we have not heard back on. We may have to file an unfair labor practice.

We are still pursuing the issue of the member of the FACCC executive

committee who was not granted leave to attend their meetings.

The DSPNS officer at CSM has had the teaching load lowered to 30 hours,

in agreement with what it is at the other campuses.

A number of grievances at Canada are being considered around the issue

of the hiring of a private investigator to look into fiscal

irresponsibilities. The person who discovered this had major changes

made in his schedule (one class at 11 the next at 4; assignments at

three different sites). Such retaliation is, in fact, strictly illegal

(6 months in jail; $10,000 fine) and when this was pointed out, the

person's schedule was redone to his satisfaction.

Dan Kaplan briefly discussed the district shared governance committee.

The chancellor apparantly wants to put members of CSEA, AFSCME and the

student body on the committee that is to rewrite the standards for

faculty hiring. He, the chancellor, does not believe the reinstitution

of the trust committee to do this would be a good idea.

Romy Theile and Annie Nichols said they had attended a meeting on the

proposed 15-5-15 calendar at Canada. They thought the crowd was

generally negative. There seem to be too many loose ends and at least

one more year is needed to clear them up before it can be instituted.

The meeting ended at 4:30 pm..

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