Dear Peralta Community,
Second Tuesday means it’s time for PFT’s twice-monthly e-Communiqué. To get your item into this space, email PFT Communications Director Matthew Goldstein (mgoldstein@peralta.edu).
*The Peralta Board of Trustees meets tonight at 7 at 333 E. Eighth St. in the district boardroom. A crowded agenda includes a public hearing, set for 8:15 p.m., on the district’s proposal to lower faculty wages, reduce faculty benefits, and increase faculty workloads in its upcoming negotiations with PFT. District demands include faculty furlough days, permanent benefits cuts, halving department chair release time, a step-and-column freeze, new office hours for counselors and librarians, and more weekly work hours for instructors.
In return for the takeaways, the district—which now grabs a greater share of the general fund than any of the colleges, even as its multiple failures have compromised their accreditation standing—has offered nothing. Faculty are encouraged to attend tonight’s meeting to inform the trustees and Chancellor Wise Allen’s chief negotiator, VC of HR Trudy Largent, that such aggression toward Peralta teachers, counselors, librarians, and nurses won’t be tolerated.
The trustees’ haste to hire a new chancellor—decried by PFT, SEIU, and Tom Henry, head of the Recovery Team—has led the board to make a number of missteps, including awkward revisions of Board Policy 1.20 (up for approval tonight). The agenda further features a request for $25,000 for a marketing consultant, and a raft of change-order adjustments from the Office of General Services, requests that raise questions about how effectively Peralta monitors its construction bids and contracts. SEIU will sunshine its own contract proposals as it heads into negotiations with the district.
*Open enrollment—an annual chance for employees and retirees to enroll in or change medical, dental, and flexible benefits plans, and to add eligible dependents not currently covered—continues through the end of the month. Forms, downloadable at http://peralta.pswbenefits.net/, are due to the Benefits Office by Oct. 31.
In unity,
Debby Weintraub, President
Peralta Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 1603
For more about PFT—contract information, contacts, downloadable forms, updates, etc.—visit pft1603.org or write PFT1603info@gmail.com.