Closed negotiations begin with District again unprepared
The District continues to reject our call for open negotiations that would allow all of our members to come and see the process. Maybe that is because you could see just how unprepared they are to negotiate. We have demanded specific budget details that the District is required to provide to us by Contract and they have failed to do so yet. We have had four meetings now, 12 hours, and they have no concrete proposals.
Our side as usual has been very well-prepared. On Wednesday, several faculty members presented on contract language about Professional Development issues, including increasing sabbatical pay and guaranteeing funding for discipline-specific professional development opportunities.
“Restoring” Administration salaries!?
Remember “Salary-gate”? That was when, in 2013, the Special Trustee and Chancellor decided to secretly raise the salaries of three top Vice-Chancellors and the General Counsel by approximately $25,000. They then “retroactively” approved these huge increases in February 2014. Their rationale? To “independently” adjust their salaries to account for “market variations.”
On April 23rd, 2015, the Special Trustee approved for all administrators a “me too” on the 0.5% salary restoration that faculty received under our contract retroactive to Jan. 1, 2015. The logic here is that administrator salaries were cut by 5% in 2013/14, mirroring the 5% cut that faculty suffered, and similarly saw the same 1% restoration in January, 2014 that faculty fought so hard to get back.
But why should the Special Trustee “restore” salaries of the elite who already received $25,000 above the administrative salary scale allegedly tied to “market” rates? There is simply nothing to restore.
Again we see the same familiar “logic”: there is money for those on the top and just more austerity for the rest of us. AFT 2121’s recent presentation in negotiations over a new faculty contract demonstrated that faculty salaries have declined to near the bottom of Bay Ten community colleges. We demand that faculty salaries increase to above the Bay Area median.
Read more recent news about contract negotiations, and review AFT 2121’s Bargaining Platform here.
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