Citing AACJC’s “show cause” dictum, the District Monday stuck to its demands for faculty concessions totaling an immediate wage reduction of 4.71% or equivalent contract takebacks as outlined in our last Update. The District continues to claim a $15m. budget gap for 2013/14 despite the public’s commitment to help defend the College and fill that gap. When pressed by AFT negotiators, District representatives acknowledged that this proposal and the financial planning it is based on marked a change in their widely distributed and discussed 3-year budget scenarios.
The District revealed its intention to devote all new revenues from recently voter-approved initiatives to meeting unspecified AACJC demands. In other words, the expected $14-$16 million in annual new revenues will NOT go to restoring program or givebacks made by employees to shore up the District budget in recent years. Instead, the District fully intends to continue to drive down salaries, benefits, and working conditions to levels apparently deemed appropriate by AACJC, the State’s trustee, and the Board.
Where will the millions in new revenues go if the District has its way? While their negotiators were either unable or unwilling to furnish this information with any but the vaguest of statements, it appears the funds would replace the District’s designated reserve at record pace to a level over-and-above the State’s suggested 5%. And presumably much of it would also stuff the pockets of a growing number of high-paid interim administrators and consultants who have taken day-to-day control of our “community” college.
Meanwhile, AFT 2121 received word that ALL part-time counseling faculty on unrestricted funds have suddenly been laid off as of the end of this semester. This information came to us from members, not from the District, and the Union brought it to the table to demand information about the rationale for the layoffs, the impact on the level of services, and the number impacted. Needless to say, District representatives had nothing to say regarding layoffs of scores of dedicated of City College faculty, many of whom have served CCSF students for more than a decade.
AFT rejects the very premise of the District’s takeway proposals and the frame of State-sponsored downsizing of our community college. We have been working to Save Our City College—for the community, for our students, and for those who do the work—and we must speak out.
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