Dear Colleagues,
As faculty were heading off last Friday for the Labor Day weekend, the AFT 2121 office was thrown into turmoil because the district failed to pay hundreds of faculty. Understandably, many were upset and in a panic as they tried to cover rent, food, and childcare payments.
When the District informed AFT that the affected faculty would not receive payment until Thursday at the earliest, we responded that such a timeline was unacceptable. AFT 2121 wrote an open letter to Chancellor Rocha demanding that our faculty get paid by Saturday morning, and he use own paycheck if necessary to make sure our hardworking teachers, librarians, and counselors could pay their monthly bills on time.
In response, top level administrators were called back to work late into the night on Friday. They scrambled to issue a physical check available for pick up at the District office for 156 people that didn’t get paid it all. They also asked those affected to document any expenses or charges incurred as a result of not receiving a paycheck with a commitment to reimbursing those charges.
While AFT applauds the Chancellor’s immediate and decisive response to this payroll crisis, this never should have happened to begin with. Much of the payroll “mishap” was due to faculty assignments that were not entered into the system in time. The District has long been aware of the challenges faced by their system. For years, our Union has spent many hours dealing with payroll grievances. For years, the District has been promising to fix their system. Over a year ago, at our introductory meeting, AFT demanded Chancellor Rocha fix FLAC (the system for administrators to communicate assignments to payroll). He promised to fix it then, as he has promised to fix it now.
The District must pay their employees! AFT 2121 is committed to holding the District accountable to a permanent solution.
In Unity,
Wynd Kaufmyn
Vice President, AFT 2121
Follow Us!