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Contract Highlights

SEE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THE TENTATIVE AGREEMENT BETWEEN AFT AND SMCCD

At the April 14th AFT Membership Meeting, our union’s Executive Committee voted to recommend that members of our bargaining unit ratify the Tentative Agreement.

Many important areas of faculty working conditions were hammered out in this agreement, and we want to share some of the highlights with you. It was a difficult three-year process but reaped great rewards for faculty!

For starters, no “take-backs” of previous provisions and, for the first time, new contract language on Full-Time Faculty Workload, Discipline & Investigations, Binding Arbitration and Part-Time Parity, including an expanded salary schedule for adjunct instructional faculty. Thanks to all of you for your support and activism.  Without you, these victories wouldn’t have been possible.

Faculty Salary Increases

For 2019-2020: All faculty will receive a raise of 3.44%. For 2020-2021: All faculty will receive a raise of 5.68% in addition to the previous year’s raise of 3.44%, for a compounded total of 9.32%. Adjunct Instructional Faculty will receive an additional 4%. For 2021-2022: All faculty will receive a raise to be determined once the San Mateo County property tax assessment for Fiscal Year 2020-2021 is known. The District will put an additional $1.5 million on the adjunct instructional schedule, to continue progress towards the 85% parity goal. If the contract is ratified, faculty will receive checks for retroactive pay for 2019-2020 and all months of 2020-2021 in which they did not receive the new, increased amounts.  Dates for receipt of these checks are not known yet, but we will let you know as soon as the District tells us.

Workload Pilot Program

This has been a high-priority issue for full-time faculty for many years as a result of the steady “work creep” that had become unsustainable. The new contract contains clear language setting reasonable limits for full-time non-teaching workload under a pilot program that does the following: quantifies service work of full-time faculty; sets a clear expectation for the amount of service work full-timers can be asked to take on; and compensates full-time faculty who exceed the expectation, either through payment or banked workload points. Because instruction will still largely be remote for Fall 2021, AFT and the District have agreed that the two-year pilot will be in effect for Academic Years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.

Discipline & Investigations

Our previous contract did not contain any language protecting faculty members subject to investigations and discipline, or requiring that fair processes be followed. This lack of clear protections created an opening for higher administration to severely punish faculty members without any due process, clear communication to the faculty member, or outreach to the AFT—faculty’s legal representative. Faculty members were removed from their classrooms without any warning or clear understanding of why they were being punished. The new contract language will ensure that this can’t happen.

Binding Arbitration Pilot Program

Up until now, the District refused to agree to binding arbitration even though we’re one of the few community college districts that operates without it. Binding arbitration is important because it guarantees that if a faculty member has a grievance that can’t be settled through  the Union and the District’s normal processes, and the grievance is brought before a third-party arbitrator, the District is legally bound to comply with the arbitrator’s ruling. In the past, the Union has gone through the costly and emotionally charged process of going to arbitration and, if the arbitrator agreed with the Union’s position, the District could still decide not to honor the arbitrator’s ruling. This new pilot program will place the grievant, the Union, and the District on a level playing field.

Part-Time Parity: Increased Pay & Expanded Salary Schedule for Instructional Adjuncts

Our District has been woefully behind most of our neighboring districts—especially those who are also Basic Aid/Community Funded through property taxes—in treating our 537 adjunct faculty members fairly. The Union made Part-Time Parity a priority in this contract round and fought long and hard to attain the following: The District agreed to set our parity goal at 85%, meaning that adjuncts should be paid at least 85% of what full-timers make for the same work. Adjunct counselors and librarians are currently at or above 85% parity; however, instructional adjuncts average around 66% parity. They also agreed to establish a new salary schedule that gives adjunct instructors all 5 education-based columns and 25 experience-based steps provided to full-timers. The District will begin paying adjunct instructors on this schedule at the start of the 2022-2023 academic year.  The District made an ongoing commitment that, until 85% parity is achieved, SMCCD will allocate funds specifically to raises for adjunct instructors over and above the money it makes available for compensation improvements for all faculty.

Medical Benefit Increases

An increase of $50 in the cap on the District’s contribution to monthly medical premiums for full-timers. 3 increases of $600 per semester to the medical reimbursement stipend available to all part-timers with an appointment of at least 40%. The part-time medical stipend will be $2105 per semester, effective January 1, 2020, $2705 per semester, effective January 1, 2021, and $3305 per semester, effective January 1, 2022.

Lab Rate Improvements

The Tentative Agreement includes new lab rates that assign .8 FLC per hour to labs across arts, music, and PE/KAD—a significant step in our continuing fight for fair lab rates for all disciplines. SMCCD has also agreed to a committee to study further increases in lab FLCs.

Counselors’ Working Conditions

The tentative agreement on counselors’ issues is the product of discussions during the Fall 2020 semester between counselors at each of the three colleges, counseling deans at each college, and one representative each from AFT and the District negotiating team. The agreement includes a number of provisions counselors asked for, including a collaborative approach to determining appointment lengths and scheduling procedures, as well as additional “prof time” for appointment preparation and follow-up with students.

Flex Day Compensation for Part-Time Faculty

Part-time faculty will now be paid for Flex Day attendance regardless of whether they usually teach on the particular day of the week that Flex sessions are scheduled.

The complete text of the Tentative Agreement, showing all proposed revisions and additions to the previous contract, is here. We are enormously grateful to all faculty for the solidarity and determination you have shown throughout these very long negotiations. These wins would not have been possible without your activism and commitment. In Solidarity, The AFT 1493 Negotiating Team (Joaquín Rivera, Monica Malamud, and Marianne Kaletzky) & The AFT Contract Action Team

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April 15, 2021

Dear faculty colleagues,

Just before Spring Break, we contacted you to announce that our union has reached a tentative agreement for a new contract with SMCCD. We are writing now to provide more details and to send a link to the text of the Tentative Agreement, where you can see all additions and revisions to the previous contract.

We have now finalized numbers on salary increases for 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. Here are the details:

• For 2019-2020:
  • All faculty will receive a raise of 3.44%.
• For 2020-2021:
  • All faculty will receive a raise of 5.68%.
  • Adjunct instructional faculty will receive an additional 4%.
• For 2021-2022:
  • All faculty will receive a raise to be determined once the San Mateo County property tax assessment for Fiscal Year 2020-2021 is known (after June 30.)
  • The District will put an additional $1.5 million on the adjunct instructional schedule, to continue progress towards the 85% parity goal.

If the contract is ratified, faculty will receive checks for retroactive pay for 2019-2020 and all months of 2020-2021 that they did not receive the new, increased amounts.

The tentative agreement includes a number of other significant wins. Among these are:

• A pilot program to quantify the service work of full-time faculty, set a clear expectation for the amount of service work full-timers can be asked to take on, and compensate full-time faculty who exceed the expectation, either through payment or banked units. Because instruction will still largely be remote for Fall 2021, AFT and the District have agreed that the two-year pilot will be in effect for Academic Years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.
• An increase of $50 in the cap on the District’s contribution to monthly medical premiums for full-timers.
• 3 increases of $600 per semester to the medical reimbursement stipend available to all part-timers with an appointment of at least 40%. The part-time medical stipend will be $2105 per semester, effective January 1, 2020, $2705 per semester, effective January 1, 2021, and $3305 per semester, effective January 1, 2022.
• New lab rates that assign .8 FLC per hour to labs across arts, sciences, and PE/KAD.
• A set of protections for faculty members subject to investigations and discipline.
• A pilot program for binding arbitration, meaning that AFT will be able to bring grievances before a third-party arbitrator whose decision the District will be bound to comply with.
• A number of provisions affecting counselors, including a collaborative approach to determining appointment lengths and scheduling procedures, as well as additional “prof time” for appointment preparation and follow-up with students.
• Compensation for adjuncts to attend District Flex Days, regardless of whether they usually teach on the particular day of the week that Flex sessions are scheduled.
• An agreement to set the District’s parity goal at 85%, meaning that adjuncts should be paid at least 85% of what full-timers make for the same work.
  
• An ongoing commitment from the District that, until parity is achieved, SMCCD will allocate funds specifically to raises for adjunct instructors over and above the money it makes available for compensation improvements for all faculty.
• An agreement that the District will create a new salary schedule that gives adjunct instructors all 5 education-based columns and 25 experience-based steps available to full-timers, and will begin paying adjunct instructors on this schedule at the start of Academic Year 2022-2023.

 

This document shows all revisions and additions to the previous contract proposed by the new Tentative Agreement.

At the April 14 Membership Meeting, our union’s Executive Committee voted to recommend that members of our bargaining unit ratify the Tentative Agreement. We are planning to hold a Zoom forum for faculty to ask questions about the Tentative Agreement during the week of April 26th. The ratification vote will take place electronically during the week of May 3rd.

We are enormously grateful to all faculty for the solidarity and determination you have shown throughout these very long negotiations. These wins would not have been possible without your activism and commitment.

In solidarity,

The AFT 1493 Negotiating Team (Joaquín Rivera, Monica Malamud, and Marianne Kaletzky)