Just as you thought things couldn’t get stranger at City College of San Francisco, along comes an email from our Chancellor about negotiations announcing a new “proposal.” Trouble is, they forgot to present the proposal to the Union.
Since the District has not bothered to inform AFT, “the exclusive bargaining agent” under the law, this is in itself another unfair labor practice. This kind of bad faith bargaining is straight out of corporate America’s anti-union playbook.
AFT 2121 did not receive a new salary proposal from the District, yet Chancellor Lamb is claiming that that they are putting “everything on the table rather than being incremental” going into fact-finding.
We’ve seen the District misrepresent their proposals before, like when they added up off-schedule raises to make it appear as if it was more than it was. They did it again! Incredibly, the Chancellor distorts the District’s “proposal” in the exact same way that they were forced to “correct” in the past!
The 5.36% she talks about is really only a 2.68% bonus for one year that goes away. Then they repeat that 2.68% the next year and then that goes away too!
AFT would welcome a real salary offer, but going around the Union is not the way to do it.
Of course, in publicizing this “proposal,” they take the opportunity to continue to misrepresent the size of the Fund Balance (reserves). How can they suddenly afford to put more money on the table if what they say about their budget is true?
We know that that there is more than enough money for significant ongoing salary increases and that they have been amassing unheard of reserves (nearly 30%) on the backs of students and on faculty who have suffered wage cuts and economic deprivation while spending on administration has increased.
Our Union is preparing to argue in fact-finding for restoration of salaries and significant increases:
- There are millions more in the Fund Balance than administration and FCMAT are saying. They purposely continue to allude to the Fund Balance reported in the District adopted Budget, while their own reports to the State show a much higher amount.
- Administration is not spending Prop A parcel tax money as the voters intended. Millions are unspent and go to reserves each year.
- Our Union has determined that through its systematic underfunding of faculty at CCSF, the District is now in violation of the 50% law, which requires that at least 50% of unrestricted funds be spent on classroom instruction.
We all know how expensive our city and region have become for all faculty, yet Chancellor Lamb continues to try to divide us. But we won’t be fooled. We aren’t going to let administrators who make over $200,000 a year give us lectures about their distorted, regressive views on faculty salaries and why we should join the race to the bottom.
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Chancellor Lamb’s email also assumes a downsized CCSF. We need a plan to grow CCSF, not one to cut it 26%! Vision and commitment to our students and college are needed. Growth will not occur simply because we wish it to, and we certainly won’t see an increase in students while the “District is committed to gradually [reducing] the schedule over a number of years,” as she states.
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Administration also held a press conference this morning to publicize the so called offer. See our counter press advisory here. AFT 2121 will file an Unfair Labor Practice charge of Bad Faith Bargaining with the Public Employment Relations Board by the end of today.
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We need a college that meets the needs of San Francisco. Students, community, and faculty and workers at the college are united in defending our beloved college because of the educational opportunities it creates for the working families of our city, and the vibrancy it brings to our economy and culture.
We will continue to work towards getting a fair contract and fighting against a downsized CCSF.
What’s next?
- Join the Emergency Delegate Assembly meeting on April 19th (Ocean Campus in MUB 240 from 3-5pm).
- Read and help us improve our AFT 2121 one-day strike information page. We will continue to update it with more information.
- Keep an eye out for more information from our union and please share it.
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