Monthly Archives: October 2023

FT FACULTY WILL PAY LESS FOR HEALTHCARE IN 2024 UNDER NEW CONTRACT

Dear colleagues,

Recently we’ve heard a lot of understandable concern from full-time faculty about rising healthcare premiums. We know healthcare is getting significantly more expensive, and AFT has already negotiated for the District to pay significantly more towards full-time faculty healthcare than previously. Once our new contract is ratified, the District will pay the following amounts in 2024 towards healthcare for faculty on all plans:

Plan type District contribution under previous contract District 2024 contribution under new contract Increase in employer contribution
Single $875.00/month $1021.41/month +$146.41/month
Faculty+1 $1444.97/month $1797.68/month +$352.71/month
Faculty+2 or more $1878.41/month $2336.99/month +$458.58/month

 

Plus, in future years, District contributions will increase for all full-timers (even those not on Kaiser) whenever Kaiser premiums increase. This is because we negotiated the new District contributions as a percentage of the Kaiser premium costs, as opposed to fixed dollar amounts: 100% of the Kaiser premium for all single-person plans, and 88% of the Kaiser premiums for the other two tiers. These changes are not yet reflected on the District’s Open Enrollment documents since what we’ve negotiated will only go into effect once the contract is ratified.

We know that calculating Spring faculty contributions can be complicated since faculty pay for summer premiums during the 5 Spring paychecks. So we crunched the numbers to compare faculty contributions under the new contract in Spring 2024 with contributions in Spring 2023. Once our new contract is ratified, two single-person plans that were free in Spring 2023 will continue to be free to faculty. Single-person Kaiser and Blue Shield HMO plans will also be free. All other plans will cost less for faculty in Spring 2024 than they did in Spring 2023.

CLICK HERE to find out how much you can expect to pay for healthcare under the new contract:

We know that faculty need a fair contract, and our negotiators are working to get a Tentative Agreement to faculty as soon as possible so that you can vote on whether to ratify it.

In solidarity,
The AFT Negotiations Team

SOLIDARITY WITH UNION SIBLINGS ON STRIKE

Solidarity with union siblings on strike

About 453,000 workers have gone on strike so far this year to win stronger contracts and better working conditions. AFT 1493 has made donations to support 4 unions that have recently gone on indefinite strikes, including:

Members of the WGA recently ratified their new contract after 148 days on strike; the other three unions remain on strike. If you are able to donate, we encourage you to contribute to strike and hardship funds to support financially struggling members of any of these four unions. You can contribute using the links above. And if you have family or friends who are taking collective action with other unions and could use support from our local, please let us know.

JOIN AFT FLEX SESSIONS OCT. 11

Join our AFT Flex sessions this Wednesday

AFT reps at each campus will hold Flex sessions this Wednesday to update faculty on the most recent developments in our contract negotiations and engage faculty in a discussion about our future. We want you to attend this workshop so you can be part of the movement to create a more participatory, transparent, and democratic union. We will introduce AFT’s new steward network and discuss how you can become a steward yourself. Our union wants to create a more robust system of member engagement and participation so you can make sure your department’s perspective is represented in negotiations, advocacy, and other things that our union does. We need YOU to make all of that happen. We will begin by going over the current status of contract negotiations to give context for this discussion. All faculty are welcome to attend.

Here’s how to attend the session for your college on Wednesday, Oct. 11th:

DISTRICT DECLARES IMPASSE / WE ARE WORKING TO GET A FAIR AGREEMENT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

Dear colleagues,

At our AFT membership meeting on September 13th, we asked faculty for direction on how to move forward in our contract campaign. Our negotiating team heard your direction loud and clear and was working to carry out the plans we made at that meeting when we learned that the District had called for impasse.

Impasse is a legally defined term meaning that both sides have reached a standstill and need outside help to come to an agreement. AFT’s negotiating team did not agree with the call for impasse, as we believed we could still reach agreement through regular negotiations. However, according to the law, either side can call for impasse, and the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) can determine that impasse has been reached. PERB made that determination earlier this month, as campus chairs communicated to you.

The determination of impasse opens up a new series of steps, starting with mediation, which is confidential, and then moving to fact-finding. However, there is no obligation to go through all the steps, and we can reach a settlement at any time. We have a mediation session scheduled for this coming Tuesday, October 24th, and are working to reach a Tentative Agreement as soon as possible. We hope you will attend tomorrow’s membership meeting to learn more (see details below); you can also contact your campus reps for more information.

In solidarity,
Your AFT negotiating team

STATEWIDE CAMPUS PARITY WEEK

Contract Mediation Today (October 24)

**Our AFT negotiating team is going into confidential contract mediation this afternoon, so some of the facts below may change. We will let members know as soon as we have any news to share.

Campus Parity Week

In the meantime, this week is the California Federation of Teachers’ #CampusParityWeek. Here are some facts about adjunct working conditions in our District:

✔️As of 2022, 57% of our faculty are classified as “temporary,” meaning they’re part-time or temporary full-time. That means the majority of our faculty have little job stability and often lose hours for reasons unrelated to their performance. “Temporary” faculty include counselors, librarians, coaches, and nurses as well as instructors.

✔️As of 2020, 42% of sections taught in SMCCCD were taught by part-timers.

✔️Currently, SMCCCD part-time instructors are at about 75% parity, meaning that they earn only 75% of what full-timers earn for the same work. (If a full-timer makes $10,000 for teaching a class, an average part-timer teaching the same class gets paid only $7500). In our last contract, our District set a parity goal of 85%—but they have yet to meet it.

✔️Part-time instructors are only paid for class time and office hours. They are not paid for prep and grading.

✔️This August, AFT and the District negotiated a one-year agreement that makes substantial improvements to the District’s part-time healthcare reimbursement program, including increasing the reimbursement amount by 85% from Spring 2023 to Spring 2024; allowing more part-timers to qualify for reimbursement; and increasing reimbursement frequency. In February 2024, AFT will return to the bargaining table to negotiate on what part-timers will receive when the one-year agreement expires. We hope to get an agreement that allows part-timers with a load of at least 40% to enroll in the same healthcare plans our District offers to full-timers, with the same out-of-pocket employee contributions.

Book Club:  EQUALITY FOR CONTINGENT FACULTY

Want to strategize about how to improve adjunct working conditions in our District? Join our book club reading Equality for Contingent Faculty: Overcoming the Two-Tier System. All faculty are invited, and you can drop in even if you don’t plan to read the entire book.