October 21, 2004

vol. 47 no. 1

From the President

Oh, it was quite a summer…halfway through autumn, and we’re still recovering. I hope yours was filled with less pandemonium than that of your Union.

Ours started off with the Contract agreement, quickly followed by an eviction and an exhaustive search for a new site, daily dialogues with the district warning them of the pending health care disaster, telephone and email bombardment from current employees and retirees, and actions before the Board of Trustees to maintain health benefits for part-time instructors. And as always, there were members’ issues and grievances requiring our immediate attention.

Let’s begin with the Contract. On May 28, Chief Negotiator Bruce Jacobs presented the just-concluded document to the Membership, and the provisions concerning health care, column advancement and counselor status were confirmed by an overwhelming vote. The agreement also contains reopeners, i.e. items that the District and the PFT agreed to continue to negotiate: for this year, we are going pursue our proposed 26-step salary schedule and the move to Step 6 on the pro rata schedule for part-timers and extra service; we will also negotiate the disposition of any new General Fund (non-growth) monies received by the District.

For 2005/06, the PFT and the District will revisit part-time faculty reappointment rights as well as the District’s receipt of new, non-growth General Fund monies. For 2006/07, the reopener will be part-time faculty office hours; until then, eligible part-time faculty will continue to receive payment for holding office hours. In addition, for 05/06 & 06/07, we will negotiate that the “salary schedule shall be increased by a percentage reflecting the effective District COLA as identified and funded by the State.”

The Herculean task of drafting and redrafting the last-minute details of the contract was spearheaded by Bruce Jacobs and Mark Greenside. Rick Greenspan's ability to maintain a vision of the total health care package was invaluable. Shirley Robinson ably led us to a conclusion on counselor language. Susan Schacher and Cynthia Mahabir were magnificent resources for all part-timer issues. All in all, it was a superb Negotiations Team. All changes to the Contract are now being scrutinized by members of the Negotiations Team and the PFT's Executive Council and Staff. Once we and the PFT’s attorney agree with the wording, it will be brought back to the next General Membership Meeting for final action. The final product will run until June 30, 2007.

Bruce Jacobs deserves this separate paragraph. Even though he was on banked leave, Bruce agreed to serve as Chief Negotiator. In my mind, he is the archetype CN: his aplomb, his unflagging energy, his resoluteness and his impeccable deportment were qualities the other side simply could not surmount. The prizes were faculty protection and continuance of quality health care at a price that bankrupted neither the District nor its employees. Bruce directed the discussion to a win-win conclusion. In these times where workers everywhere are taking a beating, that is a singular achievement. Bruce is now retired from teaching and his will be a most difficult act to follow. On behalf of the Faculty, I simply wish to say to Bruce: Thank You!

Health care! Did I say health care? We still have it and it is still affordable, and once the bugs get worked out, it should perform up to our expectations. Rick Greenspan’s companion piece will fill you in on many of the problems surrounding its implementation. Joanna Beck’s adjoining article on the right for part-time faculty to buy into the District’s health plan is a must-read for employees without any health insurance at all.

And then there was the issue of the 50/50 health plan for eligible part-timers. It seems that in late July, the District indicated that since it was no longer going to fund its portion, coverage for approximately 80 faculty would terminate on Sept 30, 2004. The PFT met with the Chancellor and the acting CFO on a near-daily basis. The Faculty peppered the Trustees with phone calls and emails. Our office organized an action before the Board of Trustees on August 28, and dozens of affected faculty came to tell their stories to the Board members. It worked. The Chancellor and the Board, thanks be to them, agreed to find the money and fund the program, albeit for only one more year. Coverage for these faculty continued without any lapse. Your involvement continues to pay dividends.

August was marked by an onslaught of emails and telephone calls, all of which were variations on the same theme: What in the h**l is happening to our beloved Blue Cross? The District stubbornly ignored the PFT’s warnings that current and retired employees were going to be concerned, confused, and angry over alterations made to a health plan in existence for nearly 35 years. Early on, we pleaded with the District to hire temporary personnel to answer phones and respond to emails, to no avail. Instead, our office kept the email wires humming as we channeled all your concerns to the powers-that-be and posted bulletins on our website, www.PFT1603.org.

Now, about the eviction. We were notified in early July that we had to vacate our office by Sept 6 or face huge fines. Robert will tell you all about it in his article on the back page. Needless to say, this need to relocate clamored for some of our attention. After an exhaustive search, aided by the expert (pro bono) legal advice of real estate attorney extraordinaire (and PFT member) Marge Gibson Haskell, we settled on a place. On Sept 15 we moved to our new and improved digs, just south of Laney’s athletic field, (500 East Eighth). Why not come up and see us some time?

Lastly, and this is a significant lastly, November 2nd is election day and health care is issue #1 in the nation, the State of California, and here in Peralta. There are four open seats on the Board of Trustees and the PFT PAC has endorsed Cy Gulassa, Johnny Lorigo, Nicky Gonzalez-Yuen and Harry Hartman for their respective district seats. The PAC and its candidates ask for your vote.

Because the containment of health care costs everywhere is so critical, the PAC also asks you for vote YES on PROP 72. If Prop. 72 fails, it will likely destroy any and all efforts to reform health care on both the state and national level for years to come. The PFT's effort to maintain our current health care benefits is hanging on by a thread and we need all the momentum we can get. Again, a vote of YES on PROP 72 is essential to future negotiations.

Thank heavens the summer is over. Now things can return to normal, as soon we know how to define ‘normal.’ All the PFT actions referenced above are examples of your union dues at work. If you are a member, we thank you. If you are a fee payer or are unsure of your status, please contact the PFT office for a membership form.

Talk to you again next month. Stay in touch and check our website weekly—www.PFT1603.org.

In solidarity,

Michael Mills

Health Benefits Committee Update

Rick Greenspan, HBC Faculty Representative

There’s an old saying that it’s not a real good idea to drain the swamp when you are up to you’re a** in alligators. Well, that’s what the Benefits Committee has been doing for the last month, and everyone on the committee has the bite marks to show for it.

At the end of the Spring 2004 semester, the Benefits Committee was “disbanded” by the District. We were told that, with the ratification of the new benefits package, our work was done. Michael Lamperd (our Benefits Broker) had drawn up a timeline and task list for the conversion from Blue Cross to Coresource/Interplan, and the District had agreed to abide by it. Essentially we were told that the District office had everything under control.

However, as the September 1 conversion deadline approached, it became clear that the process was falling apart. The District simply didn’t have the personnel to do the job. Forms were not compiled. Lists were not created. Promises were not kept. While the staff in Lamperd’s office attempted valiantly to help out, it was a classic case of “too little, too late.”

When September 1, 2004 rolled around, Peralta indeed had a contract with new medical benefits providers (Interplan, Coresource, and Medco), but the providers didn’t have a clue as to who was covered; Peralta’s employees and retirees had an entirely new medical plan, but they had no identification cards to use when they needed medical or pharmacy services. Anyone who hasn’t heard dozens of disaster stories about Peraltans being turned down at pharmacies, refused service at doctors’ offices, being turned away from emergency rooms, or having to pay huge sums out-of-pocket for medical tests has been living in an alternative universe for the past month. Words like “fiasco” and “disaster” come to mind, but they don’t even begin to describe the medical benefits situation during the month of September.

As of October 1, the situation has improved markedly. The Benefits Committee has been “reconstituted,” and we will continue to meet on a monthly basis throughout the year. Former Blue Cross subscribers (including retirees) should have received their new medical benefit cards by now. The cards include plan information, plan phone numbers, and anything else your medical provider or pharmacy should require. Jeannette Dorsey, a retiree with a reputation for getting things done, has been hired to resolve medical benefit snafus. And there is a new “Benefits Hotline,” at 510-587-7813, so that people can communicate their benefits issues and questions directly to Jeannette.

The Benefits Committee still has a lot of work to do if we want our medical benefits plan to function smoothly. For example, while we have been assured by Michael Lamperd that the “preauthorization” and “case management” required under the new plan is essentially no different that what Peralta had under Blue Cross, we haven’t seen that new policy in writing as yet. In fact, we haven’t seen our contract with Interplan, Coresource or Medco, as yet.

We also want to hear from you if you have problems with our new plan which are not resolved through the “Hotline.” If you think that parts of the plan(s) need to be explained more clearly, if you can’t obtain the same level of medical service that you previously got with Blue Cross, or if your provider won’t honor your new Peralta medical plan (once you get the card), we’d like to know so that we can get the plan working as it should. You can leave a message with any of us, any time.

PCCD Benefits Hotline:

Jeannette Dorsey — 510 587 7813

PFT’s Health Benefits Committee members:

Michael Mills (PFT President) — 510 763 8820

Rick Greenspan (Alameda) — 510 748 2309

Helenka Livingston (Merritt) — 510 434 3834

Just Say No

Mark Greenside, PFT Grievance Officer

Know your rights, because according to the Peralta District Administration, you don’t have any.

That’s right, none.

If a disgruntled student files a sexual harassment or discrimination complaint against you, the District is required by law to conduct an investigation; it’s not the investigations, per se, that have been causing problems, it is how the District has been conducting them.

The PFT has recently been involved in a District horror story (and like many horror stories, it’s one we’ve heard before). A faculty member refused to change a student’s grade. The student met with the teacher and discussed the grade at least two times, and filed a grade change request that failed to change the grade. Then, after that, the student filed a sexual harassment complaint against the faculty member. The District “investigated” it…sort of. First, the District hired an outside lawyer to do the investigation; this means two things—one, it is very costly, and two, the District can (and did) claim lawyer-client privilege so it would not have to reveal any information to the faculty member or the Union. Then, when the faculty member demanded Union representation, the lawyer stopped the interview (as is required by law) and then continued his investigation and issued a report without ever hearing the faculty member’s side. And that’s not the worst of it: the District refused to give the faculty member either a copy of the student’s complaint or a copy of the report filed by the investigating attorney—a report on which the District based the faculty member’s continuing employment.

It is the District’s position that this is an investigation, not a hearing or a trial; and as such you, the Peralta employee, have no rights. The student has rights. The District has rights. You have zip. That’s what the Peralta District says to its employees.

The PFT says: Do not, ever, ever participate in any interview or discussion or investigation that the District is conducting without first contacting the PFT. If they call or write to you, tell them you have to talk with the Union before you can do anything. In other words, politely but firmly, Say No. Not at this time. Do not refuse to meet with them; just tell them you and/or the PFT will contact them. Do not ever meet with them alone. Ever!

Know Your Contract

Joanna Beck, PFT Professional Staff

Article 22: Health & Welfare Benefits

Worries and concerns about health care benefits are all over the place. Almost everyone reads about it, hears about it, talks about it. Here at Peralta, most of our recent Contract negotiations have centered on health care both for current and retired contract faculty. Additionally, the PFT had to fight hard to retain the “50/50 Plan” (a program that has paid half the medical benefits for eligible part-time faculty) for this academic year.

But what about Peralta part-time faculty who have not qualified for the 50/50 plan? Some faculty in this category have recently been told by the District that they do not have any right to medical or dental coverage through the PCCD group plans. This is not true! Article 22.G of the PFT-PCCD Agreement (the Contract) covers health and welfare benefits for part-time temporary faculty—take a look at the language in your copy of the Contract. (Don’t have a copy? Go to our website, www.PFT1603.org, and follow the link to our Contract at the PCCD website.)

Part-time faculty who have taught at least four semesters at Peralta in the last four years are eligible to buy into the current Peralta District medical and dental insurance group plans. “The premium for participants in this program shall be an amount exactly equal to the amount paid by the District for individual contract employees.” Part-timers can also buy the group coverage for their dependents. Article 22.G goes on to explain the payment procedures, schedules, and what occurs in case of a break in teaching service.

In this time of rising health-care costs and shrinking benefits coverage, it is well worth looking at this option if you are a part-time faculty member. The cost of coverage is not cheap, but it is a group plan and offers fuller coverage than most individual plans.

But Faculty Beware! As with all other protections and rights conferred upon you by this Contract, you must be proactive with the District to get these benefits. They are not automatic! If you wish to pursue these fringe benefits, contact Jeannette Dorsey at the District Office, 510-587-7813. If you have further questions, please contact us at the PFT Office.

The Great Change of Address

Robert Lew Jr., PFT Staff Secretary

Those who visited our office at 8^th and Fallon were always impressed by how like a home it was, so comfortable and domestic. Unfortunately, it was too home-like: according to the City inspectors who visited us in July, the space we occupied was unsuitable for commercial use because of changes to ADA regulations and Oakland’s zoning laws. Though we might have wriggled around the zoning, it would have cost our landlord more than $30,000 to remodel the space into compliance with the newest Americans with Disabilities Act requirements for workplaces (such as excavating a raised concrete floor and replacing all the kitchen and bathroom fixtures).

Along with the landlord’s natural reluctance to spend so much money converting a residential unit to commercial use, we as a Union could not in good conscience continue to occupy a space where some of our members did not have access. We had to move, or at least have a place to move to, within sixty days of the inspection: deadline September 6^th.

With the help of a broker, we looked at a lot of office spaces in downtown Oakland, but nothing suitable was found in our price-range. Finally, our broker showed us a suitable place on 9^th and Jackson, but it was for sale, not for lease; we investigated the feasibility of purchasing the space, but the owner was reluctant to lease it while we worked on financing, and time was of the essence—September 6^th loomed, and we faced $500-a-day fines after that.

Then one day in late August, Michael Mills was leaving a meeting at the District Office and spotted a “For Lease” sign on a building across the way. He called the number right away, and everything started to come together like magic: the space is completely accessible, big enough to suit all of our needs, with plenty of parking all around; the realtor, John Loh, was delighted to work with us and expedited the move-in; the owner, Ed Sue, radically reduced the rent because we are a faculty union; the realtor’s brother, Leo Loh, is a moving consultant who set us up with a moving company and advised us on a slew of tiny details, from preparing our things for removal to referring us to a systems service for our phone-wiring needs.

But even with all this help, the move itself was chaotic. Remember, we were still conducting the regular business of the Union all this time, working on grievances and contract negotiations, counseling members with health benefits problems, and dealing with all the little disasters attendant on the start of a new semester as well as touring spaces and reviewing leases and packing banker’s boxes.

Though all of us had of course moved before, none of us had ever moved an office—the details were overwhelming! The dizzying number of change-of-address forms and special arrangements for leased equipment, the purging of old paper and objects that hadn’t seen the light of day in years, the packing-up of not only our important files and electronics but also all of the dishes and bibelots we’d accumulated over our nearly ten years in that space…it was incredibly hard and sweaty work, and we put hours of overtime into it.

We’ve been in our new space for a month, and we’re still in the process of settling in. The new office is much larger, yet has considerably less storage space, and these two elements have required adjustments on a grand scale, both mentally and physically. We’ve spent untold hours searching for and assembling low-cost new furniture to fill all this extra space, installing intercom phones so we can talk to each other without walking miles every day, arranging and rearranging the furniture and equipment to maximum utility, and simply getting accustomed to different walls and doors around us as we continue to conduct the regular business of the Union.

As soon as we’re completely settled in, we’ll be having a gala Open House party to introduce you to our new office. In the meantime, we’re having a Change-of-Address Contest: send us your new address (or your old address, if you’re lucky enough to have not moved lately) and other contact info, and we’ll enter you in a drawing for a variety of prizes, from logo pens and t-shirts to a really nice gift basket of gourmet goodies from the famous Harry & David.

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