CCCFE Faculty News Notes October 2, 2013

October 2, 2013

CFT Community College Council Update:

            Last weekend, the CFT Community College Council met in Oakland, and it was a lively meeting, indeed, featuring accreditation updates.  City College of San Francisco faces closure July 24, 2014. The morale is very low, a condition with which we are all too familiar.  The CCSF faculty local is at impasse with the district, as the faculty have been asked to take a 5% salary cut—on top of cuts already made—and this latest salary cut will place the faculty below the 2007/2008 salary schedule rates.  Moreover, the District wants to eliminate the minimum class size;  were this provision put into effect, it would allow the district to cancel fully enrolled classes.  The Special Trustee makes all of the decisions for the district, and there is no access to that trustee and no public meetings. 

• Approximately 150 faculty members, a combination of full and part-time, have left, due to attrition and not rehiring part-time staff, so  fewer classes are being offered.  All part-time counselors have been terminated.  Overall, faculty numbers have been reduced by 20% since 2009.
• Enrollment is down significantly;  last spring, enrollment dropped by 11%, and this semester, it dropped again by 12%.  The district is facing a loss of $25 million in funding due to this decline in enrollment.
• All administrators have received pink slips, as part of the restructuring on campus.  Some administrators left the district, while others have returned to the classroom.
• A new Chief Financial Officer has been hired;  Ron Gerhardt was previously our Chief Business Officer before leaving for Peralta, in Oakland, another deeply troubled district which has since made tremendous financial recovery.

Local 2121 (San Francisco) has filed a lawsuit to stop the closure of the college;  it is seeking an injunction to prevent the closure.  It is one of several lawsuits that have been filed against the ACCJC, and support for the lawsuit against the ACCJC is gaining strength across the state.  Complaints have been filed against the ACCJC and have been filed with the federal government. The San Francisco City Attorney has also filed a lawsuit;  interestingly, the classified staff at CCSF are city employees, so you can readily see how closure of the college would affect the city of San Francisco.

One of the lawsuits exposes conflicts of interest in the actions of the ACCJC, particularly in the connection between Lumina and the ACCJC.  You can read about this in one of the articles posted on the CCCFE website.

Among the many strategies in CCSF local 2121’s campaign is engaging the local Senates in providing resolutions in support of San Francisco’s fight to remain open to serve the needs of the very large community.  San Diego Mesa and Reedley Academic Senates have already provided such resolutions. The issue for Compton has been broached earlier, when CFT first sent out the request for Senate support.  Our Senate, at the time, felt that given our own accreditation issues, it would be ill-advised to provide a resolution supporting San Francisco’s fight against the loss of its accreditation and against the ACCJC.  The ECC Federation of Teachers’ President did not attend the state council meeting, so we don’t know what action ECC’s Senate may or may not take regarding sending a resolution in support of CCSF.

Increases negotiated at other colleges:  Los Angeles Community College Guild, Ventura, Palomar, and San Mateo have negotiated increases in faculty salary for the 2013 -14 year, with generally conditional language for increases in the subsequent years of their contracts;  their raises do not apply to the 12-13 year because there was no COLA available for that year.  That is why there has been no recent discussion of a salary increase at our bargaining table because our contract period under discussion is only for the 2012 –n 13 year, the last year of the three year, 2010 – 13 contract.  These districts have pieced together COLA + growth to get their 3% increases for the current year.

SLO discussion:  There was a question raised about part-time faculty working on SLO’s without compensation.  The Council President responded that it is illegal  to ask Part-Time faculty to work on SLO’s for free.  Some colleges, such as San Jose/Evergreen, pay part time faculty to do SLO work if there are no full time faculty in the discipline to do the work.

Negotiation Update:

            FRINGE BENEFITS:   We are still waiting for a copy of the district’s most recent offer, containing the $2,000/year increase for faculty members who take their medical and dental benefits through the college for the $10,000 amount.  However, while we are waiting, it bears noting that since 2006-07.  the district has offered a two-tier fringe benefit package at $7,000 and at $10,000.  The $10,000 package is only available for faculty who take the full-benefits plan and for those who are paying for spouse or family coverage;  those who are taking partial benefits, for example, just dental and vision coverage and are covered by another insurance carrier than the ones provided by the district, get $7,000/year;  if they have medical coverage elsewhere—either through a spouse’s insurance or are covered by an individual policy from a different provider—they can place the unused portion of the $7,000 in a tax sheltered annuity. This is an advantage that those who cover a family or spouse do not have. 

            Since the negotiating team has been notified that the increase of $2,000 is not fair because it does not affect those who get only $7,000 for fringe benefits, it must be noted that the increase was offered by the district in response to the union’s presentations to the board over a three month period regarding the difficulty in keeping new faculty who were attempting to provide medical coverage for their families.  This was action requested and unanimously supported by the membership attending the last meeting during the spring semester.

            POST RETIREMENT BENEFITS:   a clarification and update:  The District has agreed to move the start date of eliminating post-retirement benefits (life-time payment of health insurance—i/e.  medicare supplements and life insurance continuation at district paid rates) at January 1, 2014.  THIS DOES NOT AFFECT CURRENTLY EMPLOYED FACULTY. IF YOU ARE TEACHING AND HAVE WORKED HERE FOR 20 YEARS OR MORE, YOUR LIFETIME BENEFITS REMAIN.  This proposal only applies to faculty members who are hired after January 1, 2014

CANDIDATES’ FORUM SCHEDULED FOR OCTOBER 10^TH.

            Four members of the Board of Trustees are up for re-election;  Mr. Davis is not running for re-election, so there will be all new candidates running for his seat.  Mr. Ramos is running unopposed.  The union is sponsoring a candidates’ forum so that faculty and staff can meet the candidates and hear their responses to questions posed by the faculty.  This Forum will take place on Thursday, October 120^th at 1 p.m. –during the College Hour—in room E 40.  We hope that you will be able to attend.

UNION MEETING TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8^TH, DURING THE COLLEGE HOUR, 1 – 2 P.M. IN THE E ROW.

              

                                      AGENDA:

I.               NEGOTIATION REPORT AND UPDATE:  It is hoped that the district will have provided an electronic copy of the proposals and contract articles prior to the meeting

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II.          Candidates Forum:  development of questions to be asked of the candidates.

III.       Executive Board Reports:

Treasurer: fiscal health—cost for CFT/AFT and what remains in the local

Secretary:  website reminders

Part-Time Representative:  membership report

IV.        For the Good of the Order:  concerns of the membership

V.              Adjournment 

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting on October 8^th, 1 p.m. E Row.