Tentative Agreements Reached by AFT around Key Contract Proposals

By Jessica Silver-Sharp & Monica Malamud

In the last couple weeks our union has reached tentative agreements on three key provisions of our contract. 

Informal Complaints and Formal Misconduct Investigations (Article 23)

This was an article that the District sunshined (brought to negotiations), and after the District essentially accepted our previous counter except for some minor language edits, we informed the District we are ready to reach a tentative agreement (“TA”) on this article.

Grievance Procedure (Article 17)

AFT informed the District that because they (finally) agreed to binding arbitration for our grievance process, we are ready to reach a tentative agreement on this article! Binding arbitration guarantees faculty a neutral third party decision maker as the final step in the grievance process, consistent with almost every other community college in the Bay Area. 

Reasonable Accommodation (Article 25)

This article will now include a requirement for the District to respond within ten days to a status update request from the faculty member seeking accommodations.

Observe Bargaining this Summer! 

By now you’ll have probably seen our union’s call to members to participate in bargaining (see “Turning the Tables with Strategic Participation in Bargaining” in the previous issue) with the goal of winning a fair contract expediently. If you haven’t yet had an opportunity to drop in and observe a live session for yourself, it’s not too late: negotiations are expected to continue throughout the summer. You can sign up for all four slots in June or pick and choose:   

→ Thursday, June 12th @ 12:00- 4:00 pm
→ Thursday, June 26th @ 12:00- 4:00 pm

During the Spring semester forty faculty members volunteered their time on Friday afternoons to show up, union zoom backgrounds blazing, and support AFT’s negotiations team, hear our union’s and District’s proposals for themselves, and participate in the development of counter proposals during AFT caucus time. 

 

Together we are stronger! 

Questions? Reach out to Chet Lexvold, AFT’s Executive Director: lexvold@aft1493.org