OEA President’s Training: Aug 16 & 17, 2012

1.    OEA Reorganization:

The Strategic Action Plan, voted upon at a recent R.A. (representative assembly), was done in part to help the OEA recover from a more than 2 million dollar deficit. One reason the OEA had to re-organize is because so many teachers left the profession (since the recession), causing the OEA to lose dues income.

As of September 1, 2012, there will be 4 “centers”:

·         Center for Business and Finance (treasurer training, membership calculations & processing, IRS matters, forensic accounting, technology)

·         Center for Advocacy and Affiliate Services (bargaining assistance & research, grievances, legal dept, critical issues, education partnerships, workshops)

·         Center for Public Affairs (government relations [lobbying], school board elections, bonds & levies, member training, grassroots & community organizing)

·         Center for Great Public Schools (professional skills & practice and education innovation)

The OEA has moved from a “service” model to an “organizing” model. This does not mean that the OEA will no longer furnish services, such as help with grievances and bargaining, but that the OEA will be taking more time and effort to train and support locals so that they are more independently stronger (think ownership & pride) and less reliant on the OEA.

2.    NEA Member Benefits http://www.neamb.com/

·         Insurance programs, including complementary life insurance and specially negotiated auto and home rates

·         Credit programs, including an NEA credit card

·         Loan and mortgage programs

·         Savings & investment programs

·         Discount programs (Costco, auto purchase, click & save, magazines, moving & storage, H&R block, health & wellness, travel & professional services)

·         Professional liability and attorney referral program

3.    NEA Academy (http://www.neaacademy.org/):

·         Local officer training: treasurer, leadership, etc.

·         Tuition discounts

·         Application fee waivers

·         Continuing education

·         Certificates

·         Online masters programs

·         Spanish for educators

·         Much, much more

4.    Bargaining:

A.   A bargaining team should represent all bargaining unit members. In our case, instructors, librarians, nurses, coaches, etc.

B.   Personalities should include the loudmouth, the calm & collected, the intuitive, newbies and old hands

C.   The OEA (and NEA) can provide wording from other contracts

D.   Procedure

1.    Form a bargaining team

2.    Form a bargaining support team

3.    Survey the members for their ideas/issues (OEA has a survey)

4.    Bargaining team goes through the contract

5.    Meetings to discuss

6.    Prioritize the issues

5.    Newsletter communication:

·         http://www.oregoned.org/templates

·         Microsoft Word documents to make newsletters

·         Many other templates

·         Newsletter tips and content suggestions

·         How to get OEA and NEA sources

 

6.    Duty of Fair Representation: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=gov&group=03001-04000&file=3544-3544.9

“The employee organization recognized or certified as the exclusive representation for the purpose of meeting and negotiating shall fairly represent each and every employee in the appropriate unit.” California Government code 3544.9

 

1.    Duty to represent all unit employees.

2.    Duty to negotiate on behalf of all unit employees…

3.    Duty to be familiar with the contract.

4.    Duty to advise unit employees of their legal rights…

5.    Duty to process grievances in a non-arbitrary, no discriminatory and…

6.    And five MORE duties

If you want all business to be on the blog (good idea to be off the college server), then you must let everyone know and then stop sending emails.  That's what the blog was envisioned to be but when you give people the option of email or blog - email is the easiest choice.

Joey M (still an advocate for adjuncts - cause I was one!)

PTFA Board Rationale for Name Change 08/16/12:

Your Board has been discussing for the past year the idea of changing the association’s name from the Part-time Faculty Association to a name which is not just a statement regarding how many hours a member is hired to work for the College.  Our view is that our members are not just faculty part-time; they, overall, live and breathe their position, a fact very true these days given Moodle and email on top of class prep, grading, and assessment and the need to stay current in their field of expertise.

Last fall the idea was floated that perhaps a name change to Adjunct would be a good idea. The thought was that adjunct was reflective of our positions as assistants to the Full-time faculty and College – both educationally appropriate and economically reflecting our place in the college structure. A few members reacted to that idea with passion, both positively and negatively. And since at the time closing a contract for our members was uppermost in our thoughts, we never moved towards globally asking the rest of the members which side of the divide they fell upon.

 After discussion, it was decided that Association of Academic Professionals covered what all our members do: both vocational instructors and non-vocational instructors.  We are all professionals in our varied fields, and we are all working as Academics. The reaction was swift when our discussion went prematurely public, well in advance of our readiness to have it do so. Some members really see some sort of difference between a person providing vocational instruction and a person providing academic instruction. Isn’t the need to be trained in the field one is teaching the same? Aren’t the lack of full-time benefits the same? Why would we (as a union) buy further into a stratified system that singles one particular type of instruction as somehow…less than academically professional?

We have been concerned all along that so few of our voting membership is being heard. Are they perhaps not part of the discussion because they fear negative response from other members for their views? Are they not part of the discussion because they simply don’t care?  (And yes, apathy is a vote. Not voting is a vote.)

So after some rather lengthy discussion on your Board’s part, we have decided to go ahead and put the proposed bylaws change out including the proposed name change as one single vote. If enough members vote yes on the dual proposal, fine. If enough vote no on the combined proposal, then retooling is in order. But it is only fair to let each individual have their own, non-public, vote.

THANK YOU FOR PARTICPATING.

Hi all,

I have posted comments on the blog, as directed.

I have also posted the following request: "If all conversation and instructions are to take place on this blog, then they should ALL be here. That means notices about meetings, requests to vote, etc., … EVERYTHING. Otherwise, it’s exactly as Leslie put it: “Your Board is focused on the blog, and prepared for this discussion on the blog. Splitting the focus between email and blog makes it harder for everyone to keep up. People who only read the email miss half the discussion; people who read the Board over on the blog miss half the discussion. It simply adds to the labor of already busy people.”

Therefore, could we have a decision to post/instruct/discuss *everything* on the blog or *everything* via email, and let the other mode go?" Sue P.

AFL-CIO post #2 (sat, aug 11)

What a great day and what great people. I am so lucky.  Everyone is friendly and has a great attitude. I got up at 7:00am (yikes!) had big breakfast in a place filled with unionists and cheerleaders (ages 10+). It was quite crowded. My first workshop started at 8:30. The leaders had us all brainstorm things we can do for fun at our meetings. I got lots and lots of good ideas. After lunch, I slept a little. I didn't mean to....but....then I met an old, old friend who lives down here (Eugene). We went on an interesting WPA/PWA walk and say all the buildings and art done during the New Deal. I love stuff like that. Then a big BBQ, an ice cream social and KARAOKE. I danced and sang with a few people too. Like I said, this is a great crowd to hang out with. Afterwards, three of us played frisbee golf. Now it's bedtime. I have one more workshop tomorrow.

AFL-CIO Summer School post #1

Dear Part-timers,

As you may know, your dues pay for union training. If the training isn't something that's covered by your professional development AND the PTFA has enough money, we will gladly cover the cost of training (including mileage and food) for YOU. 

Anyhow, you all have paid ($275.00) for my training (via your dues) at this year's AFL-CIO Summer School sponsored by the Labor Education and Research Center (LERC) at the U of O. I've been to other LERC trainings and they have been so informative.

http://pages.uoregon.edu/lerc/

I left Portland at 2:00pm today (Friday) and arrived at 4:00. I've never been to Eugene, let alone the U of O. So...thank you for the trip. We are staying in real dorms, something else I've never seen. My room is quite small and filled with identical, fairly cheap, mass-made furnitue on each side of the room: a tiny single bed, a wardrobe (no closet), a small desk and a dresser. The floor is concrete. The bathrooms & shower are down the hall. It's fine and I am not complaining, just sharing my first dorm-room experience. So far, my roommate has not showed up.

The rest of the campus is beautiful. I walked east across Franklin (road? street?), across a canal and then across the Willamette. There is nice, big, forested park there. I saw a sign which said something about the "Wilamut" nature area. is that the original spelling of "Willamette"? The river has bike/walking paths on both sides for about 5 miles each way.

I probably won't have time to walk it, however, as my day tomorrow is full. My first workshop is from 8:30 to 11:45, then lunch, then my second workshop, then a picnic, icre-cream social, labor film festival, a tour of WPA art & architecture, karaoke, volleyball, frisbee golf and an auction. How cool is that! Thank you!  Sunday AM is my last workship, then I'll drive back home.

Tonight's dinner was great. We had several speakers, then an icebreaker activity. The second speaker was Tom Chamberlain, the Oregon AFL-CIO president. His speech was a lovely surprise; he talked about how it's time for unions to collaborate with other organizations to create a middle class for the 99%. He talked about "workers" rights; not "union" rights. And he had a cool analogy: you can walk slightly downhilll to the right, next to a stream and to a seemingly lovely place. Or you can walk uphill to the left on a dirt road towards the fight for the 99%. 

More tomorrow. Thanks for funding my trip. Jennifer

As stated in my last two emails, the bylaws (inc name change) will be presented soon, hopefully over the weekend. I also need to get you a copy of the updated bylaws and some OEA applications. Again, you canNOT vote on the bylaws if you are not an OEA/NEA member. It does NOT cost any extra.

I know full well that it may make more sense to discuss the name change before introducing the bylaws, so....here is your chance. The name we came up with is Assoc of Academic Professionals. "Adjunct" has been suggested as a better fit. Many folks are happy with "part-time".