May 17 Bargaining Update

Bargaining session report – May 17, 2011

We left this session feeling discouraged. Management has become very clear that they think all our proposals diminish management rights; they don’t but management doesn’t want to believe they don’t. Our proposals are about maintaining the rights we currently have in the 2007-2010 contract. We do not believe that part-time faculty who have proven their dedication to CCC should have to put up with the same degree of job and pay uncertainty as new instructors do (and as we did when we were new).

The bottom line in all this is that we may end up going to mediation, which is not binding. If we go to mediation, and the College does not like the ruling we get, they can “implement”, which means that whatever the College believes to be its last and best offer will become the status quo, the rules under which we live and work.

What will that mean? Pay cuts, probably. Loss of all sick day accrual, and possibly loss of accrued sick days. Reverting to the usually arbitrary and capricious manner in which some departments assigned classes. Your accumulated service to the College will have no value. Departments will be free to play favorites again, as they once did. There will be no recourse to correct unfair or unjust treatment because management will set all the rules, and change them when they feel like it.

In short: no union protection left and you’ll be on your own.

What can you do? Write letters to Joanne Truesdell, CCC President. Tell her that you support the Part-Time Faculty Association in its efforts to get a fair and sustainable contract and that you don’t agree that PTF having rights means management has none. Do it now. If you put it off, you will not get it done.

Summer break is approaching. Many of you will be away from your CCC offices and email. We will update this blog frequently, so look HERE for the latest news.

In solidarity,

Rosemary

May 5, 2011 - letter from our PTF President

Yesterday evening, I attended the Mt. Hood Community College Board of Education Budget Committee. And, I got my eyes opened.

MHCC full-time faculty are still trying to get a contract, after a year of bargaining. They have authorized a strike, scheduled to start on Thursday, May 12. They are also still having mediation sessions.

What appalled me is that the administration (more than TWICE as many administrators as CCC for a smaller and shrinking student population) insists on balancing the budget on the backs of faculty by cutting salaries, closing fully-enrolled programs and driving students away. The Budget Committee took public testimony yesterday evening. Student after student said that the College’s policies were, or will, drive them away. Several students conducted surveys of other students and reported those results: 100% of 167 students surveyed will NOT return to MHCC if the Administration replaces striking faculty with scabs.

The quality of fiscal management and accountability at MHCC seems to be much lower than at CCC. There also seem to be many costs associated with busting the union which did not show up in the budget information I saw, nor were they reported by the interim CFO last night. Such things as a union-busting attorney who routinely bills over $100 per hour. I felt a keen desire to “follow the money”, and then realized we have our own fight to fight.

All of this led to me an interesting set of mixed feelings: gratitude that CCC’s fiscal management is as responsible and transparent as it is, disgust for the way students and faculty are being treated by MHCC administration.

What I wonder is this: does it have to get as bad at CCC as it is at MHCC before we, as union members, come together for our common good? Or, can we take the hint and get ourselves organized now in visible and audible ways? What do you think?

In solidarity,
Rosemary