Monthly Archives: August 2026

Contract Forum this Friday, Aug. 28th, 1-3pm on zoom

August 26, 2026

Dear colleagues,

As you know, after 18 months of hard-fought negotiations, we have reached a Tentative Agreement with the District on a contract!  We want to inform our members about the changes and educate faculty about the Tentative Agreement before we likely hold our ratification vote next week, so we’re hosting a Contract Forum this Friday, Aug. 28th, from 1-3pm* on zoom (link: bit.ly/aft1493mm).

*Note: a prior email to faculty said the forum would be 12-2pm Friday, but it will be held from 1-3pm Friday.

In the Contract Forum, Chief Negotiator Monica Malamud and additional members of our Negotiating Team will be providing an overview of the relevant items included in our Tentative Agreement with the District, and we’ll provide time for a question-and-answer period, as well.  In case you missed my email from Tuesday evening, below are most of the relevant gains for faculty in the Tentative Agreement:

  • Raises: 13% raises over 3 years (4%-4%-5%) (2025-26 pay raise will be applied retroactively).
  • Stipends: a one-time payment of $3500 for full-timers employed as of Fall 2026 semester and $1750 for part-timers employed in academic year 2025-26.
  • Health Coverage Increase: Health insurance coverage for two-party and family plans for Kaiser increased to 92% (from 88%)
  • Academic Freedom!
  • Pay Parity for Part-time Instructional Faculty:
    • Achieve Pay Parity at 85% for all part-time instructional faculty starting academic year 2027-28.  This achieves our goal of “equal pay for equal work” and will result in a significant increase in compensation for most of our part-time instructional faculty, on top of the across-the-board raises all faculty will receive in this deal.
    • Pay-by-load beginning Fall 2028 subject to completion of “impacts and effects negotiations” to be complete by May 2027.
  • Increase to Overload Pay: Overload pay increased 2.5% in Year 3
  • Summer Office Hours: Full-time faculty teaching in the summer will be paid for office hours starting Summer 2027
  • Calculus Class Caps: Effective Spring 2027, Math 251 and Math 252 will have class size maximums of 31 students.
  • “Parental Leave” bank of up to 20 days, where faculty members will be able to donate up to 2 of their District-paid personal days to a person taking parental leave.
  • Lab Parity Reopener: the parties will convene a joint committee to review lab assignments Fall 2026, with negotiations on this specific issue starting in Spring 2027.
  • Binding Arbitration for grievances.
  • Personal Necessity Days increased and more flexible: Employees can use up to 6 sick days for Personal Necessity purposes, and 3 PN days can be used without prior approval / subsequent documentation.  District to provide 2 paid personal days to be used for whatever reason.
  • Disability Accommodations: the District must respond to faculty inquiries on the status of their disability accommodation requests within 10 days

Also, a reminder we’ll be hosting a celebration of our Tentative Agreement at Fieldwork Brewing in San Mateo this Friday, August 28, from 4-7pm.  Hope to see you there!

In Solidarity,

Chet Lexvold
Executive Director
San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT 1493
lexvold@aft1493.org
(650) 395-8347

Tentative Agreement!

We Achieved These Gains Together

We Achieved These Gains Together

WE HAVE A DEAL! Negotiating Team Reaches Tentative Agreement with District

August 24, 2026

Colleagues,

After 18 months of hard-fought negotiations, we have reached a tentative agreement with the District on a contract!  Top-line gains are as follows:

  • Raises: 13% raises over 3 years(4%-4%-5%) (2025-26 pay raise will be applied retroactively).
  • Stipends: a one-time payment of $3500 for full-timers employed as of Fall 2026 semester and $1750 for part-timers employed in academic year 2025-26.
  • Health Coverage Increase: Health insurance coverage for two-party and family plans for Kaiser increased to 92% (from 88%)
  • Academic Freedom!
  • Pay Parity for Part-time Instructional Faculty:
    • Achieve Pay Parity at 85% for all part-time instructional faculty starting academic year 2027-28.  This achieves our goal of “equal pay for equal work” and will result in a significant increase in compensation for most of our part-time instructional faculty, on top of the across-the-board raises all faculty will receive in this deal.
    • Pay-by-load beginning Fall 2028 subject to completion of “impacts and effects negotiations” to be complete by May 2027.
  • Increase to Overload Pay: Overload pay increased 2.5% in Year 3
  • Summer Office Hours: Full-time faculty teaching in the summer will be paid for office hours starting Summer 2027
  • Calculus Class Caps: Effective Spring 2027, Math 251 and Math 252 will have class size maximums of 31 students.
  • “Parental Leave” bank of up to 20 days, where faculty members will be able to donate up to 2 of their District-paid personal days to a person taking parental leave.
  • Lab Parity Reopener: the parties will convene a joint committee to review lab assignments Fall 2026, with negotiations on this specific issue starting in Spring 2027.
  • Binding Arbitration for grievances.
  • Personal Necessity Days increased and more flexible: Employees can use up to 6 sick days for Personal Necessity purposes, and 3 PN days can be used without prior approval / subsequent documentation.  District to provide 2 paid personal days to be used for whatever reason.
  • Disability Accommodations: the District must respond to faculty inquiries on the status of their disability accommodation requests within 10 days

 

Make no mistake: we achieved these gains together through tireless organizing and solidarity.  When our contract expired at the end of June 2025, the District was offering less than 6% raises over three years, and basically nothing else.  Then we successfully boycotted Flex Day.  Then the District’s offer went up to over 8% raises over three years.  Then we successfully organized our “Count On Me to vote Yes in the strike vote” campaign, and the District increased its offer to 11% raises over three years on the eve of our first-ever strike vote in March.  Then we had a 95% Yes strike vote result, fought all the way through the summer during fact-finding, and organized a credible strike threat for this September.  That is how we won not only 13% pay raises over three years, but almost EVERYTHING you see above.  The District refused to negotiate on Academic Freedom for over a year, and now we have it in our contract!  Further, we achieved meaningful structural changes to how part-time instructional faculty are paid.

None of this would have been possible without the commitment of every faculty me

mber who took action for this cause.  Whether you consider yourself an organizer or not, if you talked to your colleagues, asked them to fill out a Google Form, attend a Board meeting, wear a red shirt, etc., you organized!  We did this together.

We Achieved These Gains Together

Next Steps: the Board of Trustees will vote on approving the Tentative Agreement Wednesday night (we don’t need people to turn out for the Board meeting anymore – the big showing is canceled!).  After that, our Tentative Agreement will be formally drafted into contract language for final approval into our contract, and we will schedule a union membership vote to ratify the contract.

We’ll keep you informed as we have more details to share.  For now, let’s celebrate this historic contract for our union, and for us!  We’re going to repeat our social at Fieldwork Brewing in San Mateo this Friday, August 28, from 4-7pm.  Hope to see you there!

 

In Solidarity,

Chet Lexvold
Executive Director
San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT 1493
lexvold@aft1493.org
(650) 395-8347

Update 4: Factfinding Report Expected Thursday

August 19, 2026

Colleagues,

Sorry for the late notice, but we encourage you to wear your red AFT shirt Wednesdays until we get a fair contract!  A quick negotiations update and 2 asks for you today.

Negotiations Update

We expect to receive the factfinding report tomorrow (Thursday, 8/20/26).  Once we receive that report, it will be confidential for 10 days, during which time we will resume negotiations with the District.  If we still cannot reach agreement after 10 days, the report will be made public and we gain the legal right to go on strike.  Assuming we receive the factfinding report tomorrow, please mark your calendars for Tuesday, Sept. 8 as a potential first strike day.

Our goal remains to secure a fair contract for faculty before a work stoppage, but if the District doesn’t come to the table with a fair offer, we need to be prepared to exercise our strike power!

To refresh everyone’s memory on what we’re fighting for and to prepare for a possible strike, we’ve created a “Strike Central” page on our website.  This is the central repository for all things negotiation- and strike-related (calendar of events, logistics, FAQs, etc.) and it will be updated as we receive new information.

2 Asks

  1. If you haven’t yet done so this semester, please fill out our Strike Commitment form, or tell me or another member of our Strike Team you’re committed to going on strike and joining our picket line in September should we call a strike.  If you do not fill out this form or tell one of us you’re in, we will be calling and texting you in the next week!
  2. Plan to attend the very-important Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday, Aug. 26th, 4:45-7:00.  3401 CSM Dr, San Mateo.

We achieved a milestone with our 95% Yes Strike Vote in March, and I can tell you that the District has made better offers as a result of that vote and our looming strike in September.  After all our hard work, let’s make sure we cross the finish line strong, continuing to organize and flex our union power so that we win a fair contract!

Below is a picture from our social last Friday.  Onward in solidarity!

Chet Lexvold
Executive Director
San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT 1493
lexvold@aft1493.org
650-395-8347

San Mateo Labor Council Sanctions Possible AFT 1493 Strike