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February 12, 2004

From the President

Greetings and welcome back to yet another semester!  Permit me to begin with a sad but true labor axiom:  CONTRACTS ARE NOT WON AT THE BARGAINING TABLE. 

Despite your union negotiators’ unwavering application of unassailable logic at the bargaining table, at the end of day, it will take your involvement and your pressure to bring the contract to closure in our favor.  You must let the District administration and the Board of Trustees know that you have labored too long and too hard to see your health benefits whittled away in the name of “cost savings.”

Our District has one of the highest costs of living in the State, yet our average faculty salary ranks 9th out of 10 among the Bay Area’s community college districts. (See Mark Greenside’s article).  It’s the benefits, not the salary, that have attracted and retained quality faculty within the Peralta Community College District. And now the Administration wants major concessions from our benefits packages without offering any compensation in return.  They call it “cost sharing”; what they really mean is cost shifting, with the cost being shifted to the Faculty. 

For months, your Union has been working to preserve the elements of the Blue Cross Prudent Provider Plan (PPO) as we know them.  We’ve done this for two reasons:  1) two-thirds of our members are on PPO; 2) the PPO must be available for all Kaiser members who lose their Kaiser eligibility when moving out of Kaiser’s service area.

Now the District is endeavoring to alter significantly the elements of the Kaiser plan as well.  Yes, you read correctly:  if the District prevails, Kaiser members will pay significant co-pays and deductibles, and could pay additional hospital and procedure costs, to a maximum of $1000 per member and $3000 per family.  In other words, the District is seeking to place caps on what it contributes to our health benefits plans, shifting the burden of paying for escalating medical costs to you, the faculty members, regardless of the plan that you chose.  Incidentally, this is the same cost shifting scenario that Safeway is perpetrating on its employees.  (See the article by Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla.)

So why hit Kaiser members?  Hasn’t this benefits debate been solely about the PPO, and haven’t faculty been applauded for enrolling in Kaiser?  Yes, but that was yesterday.  Today, the District is after savings and wants faculty to bear the costs for health care.  And as it turns out, Kaiser demands that its members match the co-pays, deductibles and out-of-pockets provisions of the District’s companion health plans, providing the District with another opportunity to walk away from its responsibility for District employees.  Furthermore, the District wants to replace its companion plan, the PPO, with another that shifts significant costs to the faculty.  So, Kaiser will end up charging its members whatever the new plan charges its members. Health care issues now directly affect all of us.

Teachers, counselors and librarians generate the revenue that keeps this District afloat.  It is through our collective endeavors, despite limited institutional support and funding, that the District is meeting and exceeding its projected enrollment targets.  Classes are packed, yet the students keep coming.  And instructors, sympathetic to student appeals, are persuaded to accept more students than prudence dictates.  The District puffs its chest and calls it “productivity.”  The Faculty knows otherwise:  this “productivity” results from the canceling of hundreds of sections and the laying off of dozens of part-time teachers.  This “productivity” puts quality education into jeopardy.

How does the District reward us for exceeding enrollment projections and giving it cash to spend?  You guessed it, they want ALL faculty to empty their pockets to the tune of thousands of dollars per year to pay for medical benefits.  They tell us that we have to stay next to the bottom in Bay Area faculty salaries because they haven’t got the money; yet, they tell us that we must work harder by taking on more students and fulfilling more professional service responsibilities for the colleges.

Do these grim prospects disturb you?  Are you willing to do something about it?  You don’t have to do much.  How about attending a board meeting and staying for an hour or so and letting the Trustees know how you feel?  Ten or twenty faculty should be in attendance at every Board meeting.  Once or twice over the course of a semester, we’ll be asking for larger turnouts. Phone calls to trustees are also very helpful.  How about dropping by the District office and leaving a note for the Chancellor?  Check www.PFT1603.org for phone numbers and Board meeting dates.  Contact Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla at the PFT Office, 763-8820, to become a member of the PFT Organizing Committee.

The only way for the Faculty to retain its benefits and secure promises for fair salaries is for each of you to “GET ON THE UNION TRAIN.”  If you do not, sadly, you’ll be left on the District’s tracks.

Michael Mills

Worth Less and Diminishing

A Report on Faculty Salaries by Mark Greenside

Feel like you’re earning less? Well, you are. And if the District (based on its negotiating position) has it their way, you’ll continue to do so—forever.

The following data—the mean average faculty salaries—comes from the State Chancellor’s Office Staffing Reports. Check it out!

·         In 2000, the average Statewide full-time faculty salary was $62,912.  

·         Peralta’s average salary for full-time faculty was $60,136.

·         In 2000, Peralta ranked 52nd out of 72 districts, or in the bottom 28% of the state.

·         In 2000, Peralta ranked 9th in the Bay 10:

1.       Foothill-DeAnza................... $69,931

2.       Contra Costa....................... $65,857

3.       Marin.................................. $65,245

4.       San Francisco...................... $64,966

5.       Chabot-Los Positas.............. $63,222

6.       West Valley/Mission............ $62,033

7.       Solano................................. $60,862

8.       San Jose-Evergreen............. $60,771

9.      Peralta............................... $60,136

10.   San Mateo........................... $56,759

·         In 2000, the average full-time faculty salary in the Bay 10 was $63,345.  

·         Peralta’s average full-time faculty salaries were 5% below the Bay 10 median. 

Two years later, in Fall 2002, it looked like this:

·         The Statewide average full-time salary was $69,088, a 10% increase.

·         Peralta’s average full-time salary was $63,347, a 5% increase.

·         Peralta ranked 61st out of 72 districts, the bottom 15% of the State.

·         Peralta remained 9th in the Bay 10:

1.       Contra Costa....................... $72,543, up 10%

2.       Foothill-DeAnza................... $71,994, up 3%

3.       San Francisco-..................... $71,806, up 11%

4.       Chabot-LosPositos............... $70,273, up 11%

5.       Marin.................................. $70,395, up 8%

6.       San Mateo........................... $65,508, up 15%

7.       Solano................................. $64,769, up 6%

8.       San Jose-Evergreen............. (unavailable)

9.      Peralta............................... $63,347, up 5%

10.   West Valley/Mission............ $61,563, down .

In 2002, the average full-time faculty salary in the Bay 10 was $67,053.

·         In 2002, Peralta’s average full-time salaries were 6% below the Bay 10 median.   

  From 2000-2002, the percentage increase in the average salary for full-time faculty in the Bay 10 was 8%. Peralta’s increase was 5%.

Last year, 2002-03, we received a 2% salary increase from the State COLA, a sum most other faculties also received.

This year, 2003-04, we received a zero increase, and for those faculty members due step, column, and/or longevity increases, plus department chairs and faculty working on tenure review committees there was actually a reduction in pay. Clearly, we are not gaining ground.

And what is the District offering to remedy this situation? This is what they have proposed: an increase in our workload to a mandatory 40-hour work week; a reduction in our benefits package with an increase in our co-pays and deductibles; no salary increase; and no automatic pass-through of new State COLA money (projected to be 1.87%) or new State growth money (projected to be 3%), even though the District itself has documented the faculty’s increase in productivity that generated the current growth. How’s that for a thanks!

·    Get ready. This is probably going to be a rocky semester.

Know Your Contract

Joanna Beck, PFT Professional Staff

Article 18 of the PFT/PCCD Agreement (the Contract) should be a well-thumbed and dog-eared section of your personal copy of the PFT Contract. (What?  You say that you don’t have a copy?  Hie yourself immediately to our website, www.PFT1603.org, for easy access to this crucial document!) This article covers “Hours, Workload, and Class Size” issues.  These are issues that preoccupy most faculty.  But before any worries can arise about this trio of workplace concerns, faculty first need a teaching assignment.  Article 18 A. 12&13 covers this vital link in the employment chain.

While the administration is responsible for hiring, managers must consult department chairs and the faculty member about actual assignments.  Faculty are entitled to 60 days written notice of any proposed assignment.  Keep in mind that certain types of assignments are not allowed under the contract (with the exception of extra-service) without express faculty consent:

ü      Faculty assigned to more than two campus sites in one semester/term

ü      Evening and day assignments separated by less than an 11-hour break

ü      An assignment over 5 days a week

ü      Saturday assignments for more than one term per year

ü      An instruction assignment during the regular semester of more than 4 consecutive hours or counseling assignment of more than 6 consecutive hours without a one hour break.

Knowing your contractual rights and protections before trouble arises is always prudent.  Whether your contract is a thick, goldenrod covered document sitting on your desk or a cyberspace glow on your computer, know your contract!

No Union Member is an Island unto His or Her Self

By Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, PFT Professional Staff

 

What Does the Safeway Strike Have to Do With Me?

Everything.  Three giant corporations, Safeway (Von’s), Kroger (Ralph’s) and Albertson’s, are attempting to eliminate affordable health care benefits from the contracts of  70,000 Southern California supermarket workers.  The Safeway Corporation has presented a somewhat successful radio campaign shifting the blame for the strike to the workers.  The media has capitulated by regularly reporting, as in the January 28, 2004 San Francisco Chronicle article “Getting Personal: Safeway CEO Finds Himself at the Center of Labor Dispute,” that employers are only asking for $5-$15 per week in health care contributions from employees.  The unreported fact is that these employers also want a “cap” on what their contribution would be toward future health care benefits, thereby shifting all rising costs to their workers and effectively eliminating affordable health care.

Does any of this sound familiar?  And what can you do to help put a stop to the erosion of affordable health care for yourself and for others?  Here’s how to get involved:

1. Voice your concerns to the Peralta Board of Trustees that affordable health care is not a privilege, but a right.  Let them know that you, and all our faculty members, have worked hard for affordable health care.  Remind them that  Peralta faculty traded pay at the negotiations table in years past for affordable health care.

2. Volunteer your time.  Become a member of the PFT Organizing Committee and help to get the word out to PFT members about what action they can take to support the PFT Negotiations Team.

3. Support other workers.  Don’t shop Safeway.  And if you can, send a check to: UFCW Strike Hardship Fund, Attention: Secretary-Treasurer Joe Hansen, 1775 K Street, NW, Washington, D.C., 20006.  Or donate online through the AFL-CIO.

Remember, without health care, there is no health.

Retraining Leave And STRS Service Credit

by Mark Greenside

Article 26, Section S of the PCCD-PFT Collective Bargaining Agreement provides retraining leaves for the faculty. This provision has been in the contract for 20 years. Up until now, a portion of the time that a faculty person was on leave did not count towards STRS service time. For example, if you were approved for a .5 retraining leave for one year, you would only receive .375 STRS credit for the .5 you were on leave.

A few years ago STRS changed its regulations and allowed faculty members to buy (at the member’s expense) STRS credit for the time a member was not credited when s/he was on Sabbatical. (Faculty on a one-semester Sabbatical are credited 100%; faculty on a full-year Sabbatical are not).

On January 20, 2004 the PFT and the PCCD signed an agreement allowing faculty members who received retraining leaves to buy STRS credit (at the member’s expense) for the time they have not been credited. If you have had a retraining leave and would like to buy-back your uncredited time, contact the PFT for information and details.

YES on Prop 56: The Budget Accountability Act

You remember all of the confusion and damage caused when the 2003-04 State Budget was finally passed months after the deadline, stalling our programs, hiring, and Contract negotiations, as well as crippling the state’s public education, health care, and other services; over the last twenty-five years, the State budget has been late seventeen times, often with disastrous effect.  When there is no Budget, districts cannot plan the year ahead, students cannot be accommodated, and many public employees can’t even receive their paychecks.  Political parties and special interest groups have held the State Budget hostage repeatedly, using our livelihoods, our students’ interests, and the state’s fiscal health as leverage to pass pet legislation and to get funding into their own projects.

Proposition 56 was drafted to reform a budget process that clearly does not work.  It is supported by hundreds of education groups, health-care professionals, labor unions, public safety groups, senior citizens associations, trade councils, community groups, good-government leagues, city and county governments, and elected officials across the state.

The Proposition 56 Budget Accountability Act will:

·   Hold Legislators Accountable: Legislators won’t get paid their salary, per diem expense and car allowance for each day after the deadline that the budget isn’t passed.

·   Force Legislative Responsibility for the Budget: Requires the Legislature to stay in session until they pass the budget.

·   Reform the Budget Process and End Gridlock: Changes the votes required to adopt the state budget and related tax legislation from two-thirds to 55%.

·   Give Voters the Facts They Need on the Budget: Requires the official ballot handbook to disclose how tax dollars are spent, along with a website where voters can find out how their legislators voted on the budget and tax bills.

·   Require Fiscal Responsibility: To curb deficit spending, Prop 56 requires the Legislature to set aside a mandatory reserve fund of at least 5% so that extreme budget cuts and tax increases will be less likely in a weak economy.

Opponents to this Proposition (mostly alcohol, oil, tobacco and insurance lobbies) have claimed that eliminating the two-thirds super-majority vote will be giving a blank check to the Legislature, making it so easy to raise taxes that legislators will not be able to resist.  However, there is no evidence that the taxes in the forty-seven states that pass their budgets with a simple majority vote have any higher taxes than we do (only Rhode Island and Arkansas require the super-majority vote that has held up California’s Budget over and over).

The PFT Executive Council urges you to vote Yes on Proposition 56 and help bring about effective budget reform.  If you want to get involved in the Yes on 56 Campaign, contact the PFT office for materials and information, or visit the Budget Accountability Now website at www.yeson56.org.

Peralta Faculty Job Openings

There is an unusual abundance of faculty vacancies right now, due to recent retirement incentives as well as to the PFT’s efforts to keep the District from collapsing full-time positions; now is a great time to improve your employment situation at Peralta and your professional life as an educator.

Article 19.B of the Contract guarantees full-time faculty the right to apply for vacant positions in the District as a voluntary transfer; Article 30.E guarantees part-time faculty the right to apply and interview for any vacant contract position that is within the discipline's they’ve taught in Peralta.  If you are interested in an intradistrict transfer or a full-time job in the District, make sure to keep your eye on the PCCD website’s job board (www.peralta.cc.ca.us).

Here are some of the jobs open right now at Peralta, available to full- and part-time faculty, including location and application deadline.  Details of these positions, and information on internal-only openings, are available at the PCCD website and the Peralta HR Office.

Architecture/Engineering Instructor............... Laney............. 3/4

Automotive Technology Instructor............... Alameda........... 3/3

Biology Instructor (2 positions)................... Alameda........... 3/3

Chemistry Instructor.................................. Alameda........... 3/3

Cosmetology Instructor................................ Laney............. 3/4

Culinary Arts Instructor................................ Laney............. 3/4

Developmental Math Instructor.................... Alameda........... 3/9

English Basic Skills Instructor.................... Alameda......... 2/25

English Basic Skills Instructor...................... Vista............ 2/26

ESL Instructor........................................... Alameda........... 3/3

ESL Instructor............................................. Vista............ 2/26

Librarian...................................................... Vista............ 2/26

Mathematics Instructor.............................. Alameda........... 3/9

Music Instructor.......................................... Laney............. 3/4

Music Instructor........................................ Alameda......... 2/25

PE Instructor/Volleyball Coach..................... Laney............. 3/9

Political Science Instructor......................... Alameda......... 2/25

Theatre Arts Instructor................................. Laney............. 3/9

 

Are You Busy Tuesday Night?

It looks as if the district is going to try to make us pay thousands of dollars for our health benefits— Kaiser as well as Blue Cross? We need to show up at Board meetings to show them that they will NOT be able to do  this unopposed.

We are asking swquential groups of faculty, organized by last name, to attend Board meetings and carry placard or signs (of course, all faculty are welcome to attend all of the meetings if they wish):

Board of Trustee Meetings start at 7 pm; plan on arriving a little early and being there about one hour. If you call ahead to the PFT office with your shirt size, we will provide you with a CFT tee shirt (featuring beloved Union icon “Rosie the Riveter” and the slogan Education is Union Work) so that we can make an impressive uniform appearance.

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