May 2022 Advocate: Negotiations Report

Negotiations Report

AFT and District negotiating teams hold first bargaining session for 2022-25 faculty contract

by Marianne Kaletzky, AFT 1493 Executive Secretary

On May 4, AFT and the District held our first negotiation session towards a faculty contract that will cover July 2022 through June 2025.

AFT negotiators attending were Joaquín Rivera (Chief Negotiator), Monica Malamud, and Marianne Kaletzky; AFT members observing were Eric Brenner, Lorraine DeMello, Mandy Lucas, and Lori Slicton. District negotiators in attendance were Randy Erickson (Chief Negotiator), Joe Morello, David Feune, Aaron McVean, Mitch Bailey, and Max Hartman.

The District introduced their new chief negotiator, Randy Erickson of the Erickson Law Firm in San Diego. Erickson and his team presented proposed revisions to Articles 2, 3, and 10 of the current faculty contract.

  • Article 2: Organizational Rights (governs the rights of the union to speak with faculty and access information about faculty, as well as provisions like release time for union activities):
    • The District is proposing transitioning from sharing information about faculty with AFT through email to sharing it through a secure website.
    • The District is proposing language governing new employee orientations and AFT’s role in those orientations, including that AFT will be provided with notice of an orientation at least 10 days in advance where feasible, and that AFT will be provided 30 minutes to speak with new faculty at group orientations.
    • The District rejected our proposal to increase release units available for union activities from 18 per semester to 24 per semester.
  • Article 3: Payroll Deductions for Union Dues
    • The District is proposing language stating that membership and dues deductions are managed internally by the local, rather than by the District, and that the local is liable for charges brought against the District related to dues deductions where the District has relied on information provided by the local. The District’s proposal would not change the percentage deducted for dues or the process for becoming an AFT 1493 member.
  • Article 10: Retirement
    • The District is proposing removing language setting forth conditions for participation in the Reduced Workload Plan (also known as the Phase-In Retirement Plan). According to the District, because the conditions for participating in the Reduced Workload Plan are dictated by CalSTRS, having language on specific conditions in the contract might create a divergence between the CalSTRS conditions and the contract conditions and could make faculty confused as to whether they are entitled to participate in the plan. The District also proposed minor linguistic and grammatical changes to Article 10.

AFT will respond to the District’s proposals at our next negotiation session on May 20.

After the District presented their proposals, AFT presented all proposals contained in our sunshine document (termed as such because these proposals must be shared with the public, or “sunshined,” before negotiations begin). Those proposals include:

  • A fairer salary formula than the one that gave us a .52% raise for this year
  • Clear policies around class cancellations
  • Paid parental leave
  • Increased District contribution to full-time health benefits
  • Part-time pay parity (pay PT faculty at least 85% of what FT faculty make for the same amount of work)
  • Better healthcare options for part-timers
  • Guarantee that faculty can do a certain percentage of work remotely
  • Increased flexibility for counselors and the recognition of online counseling as a modality of counseling
  • Stronger part-timer appointment rights
  • Clear, expedient disability accommodation process
  • Contractual protection for academic freedom
  • Contractual provisions covering distance education
  • Clear policies on when faculty may be assigned to teach dual enrollment classes

 

• Read more information on our proposals

• View the full sunshine document (AFT’s complete initial contract proposals)

• All negotiations reports are posted on our Negotiations Updates page

 

We look forward to sharing more information with you as the District responds to specific proposals and we begin in-depth negotiation on them.

Upcoming negotiations dates:

  • Thursday, May 19: 12-4 p.m.