Feb. 2019 Advocate: Yosemite College District faculty reach contract agreement

UNION SOLIDARITY

Yosemite Community College District faculty reach contract agreement after 2-day strike

In the previous issue of the Advocate, we reported on a two-day strike in late November by faculty in the Yosemite Community College District (YCCD) after three years of bargaining between the district and the Yosemite Faculty Association (YFA) broke down. The YFA represents all full and part-time faculty at Modesto Junior College (Modesto, CA) and Columbia College (Sonora, CA). Our report included an interview with the YFA President Jim Sahlman about their strike and contract campaign.  On December 30, 2018 the YFA finally reached a successful agreement with their district and we received the following report from their president.

The Yosemite Faculty Association (YFA) reached a Tentative Agreement with the Yosemite Community College District (YCCD) at about 4:30pm on December 30.  We negotiated for about 8 hours yesterday as well as another 8 hours on December 23rd.

The PERB fact-finding report was received on December 19 and it was almost a total victory for YFA.  The District wanted to make us wait to negotiate until December 30, bypassing the expected 10-day review period with the report.  The YCCD was attempting to force us to take a lesser offer or impose its LBFO [last best final offer] by making us wait until December 30.

Instead, we were able to force the District back to the negotiating table and got them to start negotiating on December 23.

We are pleased with the TA and anticipate easy ratification by faculty.  Our Chancellor believes the Board will approve the TA as well.

On behalf of the YFA, I want to thank all of you for your encouraging support throughout this entire process.  The faculty in our union are truly appreciative

Happy New Year!

Jim Sahlman, President, Yosemite Faculty Association