In The Advocate’s recent article “Why has contract bargaining taken so long” (Nov. 2024), our union reported on some of the many ways our District has for years stalled contract negotiations, resulting in long delayed faculty contracts, raises that show up as as retropay, and even a time and energy sapping unfair labor practice (ULP) charge against our union which the District agreed to “settle” just before they would have been required to make their case to PERB, California’s Public Education Relations Board. All of this has led to understandable frustration amongst faculty and our union leaders.

In our union’s latest contract bargaining sessions that began February 7, 2025 instead of the hoped for improvements, our union instead found ourselves contending with the District’s newly hired Chief Negotiator Ellen Wu, a labor lawyer with an energetic talent for obstruction and delay. Ellen’s profile speaks for itself: she “handles . . . discipline matters on behalf of districts, including teacher dismissal hearings,” and “advises and assists school districts regarding lawful responses to strike activity.”

 

Turning frustration into action

This turn of events has seen faculty activated and participating in our union’s contract campaign in new and significant ways. Following a Fall 2024 union survey where our faculty prioritized their contract demands and expressed interest in joining “article committees” (teams of faculty who get involved based on their interest in a particular aspect of the contract), close to 100 faculty joined a January 2025 Flex Day session to learn more and sign up to get started.

Regular Friday article committee meetings followed, where faculty tapped their job specific expertise and actual experiences with the current contract to research and propose new article language for AFT’s new and expanded negotiations team. The team includes five faculty members representing all three campuses and is led by Chief Negotiator Monica Malamud.

The week before negotiations began, faculty also filled the District’s Boardroom, holding posters with their demands and making known our union’s expectations for Board support. As background, while our Trustees don’t themselves negotiate contracts, they’re responsible for giving direction to the District’s negotiations team. (As Trustee Holober reminded us recently, our elected Trustees work not for the Chancellor nor the District but for the taxpayers of San Mateo County.)

 

 Over the next three weeks, faculty frustrations mounted following negotiating delay tactics by the District. These included their demands that our union accept 19 new “ground rules” before bargaining could even begin and an aggressive attempt to ban all faculty observers from negotiations. The District also tried to ban AFT’s ability to share bargaining updates with our faculty. The union prevailed against these tactics. 

After reporting this to our members, the number of faculty observers attending negotiation sessions doubled. Since bargaining ground rules prevent negotiation sessions from being photographed, imagine a zoom screen with 17 faculty against their AFT zoom backgrounds, far outnumbering the District’s team of six or seven. 

On February 26, AFT negotiator Luis Zuniga again reminded our elected Trustees of their responsibility to actively secure the District’s commitment to fair and expedient bargaining. He said,

“I am here to express our deep, deep disappointment in the District’s approach to the current round of negotiations… The District has spent the majority of our [first] two negotiation sessions insisting on unnecessary and overly detailed procedural ground rules.” (Watch here) 

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Faculty article committee member and veteran faculty English instructor Tim Maxwell also spoke out strongly that evening about dual enrollment, a contract article AFT also began negotiating this February.

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Speaking last by zoom was long-time faculty member Lori Slicton (Anthropology, Skyline College) who made comments on the need for stronger support for faculty with disabilities, especially in light of new attacks on accessibility by the Trump administration. (See “Letter to the Editor” in this edition).

 

 

Why has the District tried to ban faculty from observing negotiations? 

The answer is that observers participating in what is known as “open bargaining” reflect “power in participation,” also the name of a book and workshop by the late labor activist Jane McAlevey. Seventeen of our AFT faculty members attended McAlevey’s Summer 2023 workshop and learned how opening up negotiations to rank and file members through article committees and at the bargaining table “helps to build the power required to effectively challenge and reverse income inequality and attacks on democracy” (excerpt from Amazon book description linked above).” 

During the past five weeks, our faculty observers have done just that, playing witness to the District’s false promises to bring a new, more collaborative approach to bargaining and also sharing their experiences with their colleagues. Here, for example, is how faculty recently described their experience observing District’s chief negotiator Ellen Wu’s interrogation tactics during negotiations: 

 

Together we can overcome the District’s attempted roadblocks

While The Advocate reported in November the hopeful news that our union and Chancellor Melissa Moreno had begun meeting regularly to develop smooth communication between the faculty and the administration and to be able to quickly address union questions and challenges with HR, most recently the Chancellor canceled all future meetings. When the union requested she reconsider, communications resumed within a week. 

The above leads to one, very important conclusion: Your union needs YOU! This is a critical moment — we cannot allow the District to set a precedent of delaying and denying negotiations on the material, substantive issues in our contract. We can, however, overcome the District’s tactics by showing a collective, unwavering commitment to securing the just contract we deserve.