(Last updated: March 23, 2025, please scroll down for the latest updates)

This page contains a record of the communications the Federation’s bargaining team sent to faculty during the bargaining process. Messages are order from most to least recent.

March 28, 2025

Dear Colleagues,

On March 21, 2025, the Federation’s bargaining team met with the District’s team. In response to our pressure and efforts, the District proposed a set of ground rules that offered a path for limited open bargaining. The District offered open negotiations, but only when we bargain Article 10 (Compensation) and Article 17 (Insurance Benefits). Bargaining on other articles would remain closed under their proposal.

Among the many proposed restrictions for open negotiations, the District is proposing to delay open negotiations on Articles 10 and 17 until after the completion of the 2024-2025 reopener negotiations on compensation. We are scheduled for our first mediation session for the reopener on May 5, 2025. We intend to counter with a proposal that will allow for a faster, less restrictive pathway to open bargaining at our next scheduled bargaining meeting on April 4, 2025. Please inform your colleagues about the status of open negotiations and encourage them to convey their feedback about the importance of open negotiations and having a ratified contract by June 30, 2025, to the BOT and administration.

Aside from negotiating the terms of open bargaining, we have worked on the following Articles:

Article 3 – Rights of the Federation: We have mutually agreed to basic operational changes and language updates based on updated statutes. We are still bargaining over the precise terms of office rent and release time.

Article 4 – Intercollegiate Relations: We are in discussions over modifying the language regarding the faculty handbook. We will present a counter proposal at the next meeting.

Article 8 – Working Conditions: We presented our first proposal to the District, which contained proposals to reduce workloads, increase compensation, decrease onerous requirements, and create a more equitable power sharing dynamic between faculty and administrators. We have also proposed department chairs. The District will offer a counter proposal at our next meeting.

Article 11 – Paid Leaves: The District has proposed a series of changes and updates in accordance with statute.

Article 12 – Unpaid Leaves: The District has proposed updating the section numbering.

Article 13 – Sabbaticals: The District has proposed updating the section numbering.

Article 15 – Holidays: We have tentatively agreed to an update for a holiday name.

Article 18 – Pre-Retirement Program: We have mutually agreed to updates for CalSTRS and PERS eligible FT faculty in line with updated statutes. We have reached a tentative agreement on the article.

Article 23 – Work Stoppage: We have a tentative agreement to fully abolish the article. The Federation took a two contract cycle approach to reduce contractual restrictions on our speech and assembly. In the last contract cycle, we successfully and substantially reduced restrictive language in this article. This cycle, we’ve reached a tentative agreement on removing it completely. We strongly encourage you to review the Article 23 language that existed for decades, the current version, and the newly reached tentative agreement. Given the current campus climate, removing restrictions on our speech and asserting our legal rights is as important as ever. 

Our next scheduled bargaining session is April 4, 2025. For more information, please view our website.

In solidarity,

The Federation Bargaining Team

February 17, 2025

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the spring 2025 semester! We hope that you’ve had a positive start to 2025 and that your classes will get off to a great start this week.

As we enter the spring 2025 semester, the Federation is already underway in the bargaining process for our new contract, as our current contract expires on June 30, 2025. Additionally, the Federation is negotiating the FY 2024-2025 reopener. For the reopener, we were able to achieve substantial improvements to the PT healthcare program, which our members voted to ratify as an MOU. However, for the second item of the reopener, compensation for FY 2024–2025, we are entering mediation because after nearly a year of interest-based bargaining, the District ultimately would not offer a single dollar in salary increase to our faculty. The state-funded COLA for 2024-2025 was 1.07%.

We had our first bargaining session dedicated to our new contract on February 14, 2025, where we discussed the following articles (order requested by District):

Article 3 – Rights of the Federation

Article 18 – Pre-retirement Program

Article 21 – General Provisions

Article 24 – Instructional Technology

In discussions with the District about our preferred article progression, the Federation team asked to begin with Article 17 – Insurance Benefits (healthcare) with the goal of implementing new District healthcare contributions through an MOU before our contract expires. This goal would ensure that new, augmented District contributions to our healthcare costs are in place when our current contract expires so that we are not stuck, again, covering a larger difference between the old District contributions and total healthcare premium costs should we not have a contract approved by the Board of Trustees (BOT) by July 1, 2025. To that end, the Federation has a healthcare proposal ready, but the District responded that they are not prepared to bargain on financial items and could not provide a specific time frame when they would be prepared. The District’s position is curious because we have been engaged in compensation/healthcare bargaining with the District for our FY 2024-2025 reopener since the beginning of last year, and because our administrators have been meeting with each other frequently for budget planning.

We have also reiterated the broad faculty interest in open bargaining, which would allow all faculty to observe the conversations that happen at the bargaining table firsthand. Open bargaining for this contract was first formally communicated in our request-to-bargain (sunshine) memo submitted to the District in writing on November 1, 2024. However, the District’s team members took the position that they were unaware that we wanted to bargain openly and needed to discuss the open format first with the Board of Trustees on Wednesday, February 19, 2025. The District’s team members emphasized that they would be opposed to any form of recordings. 

Our next scheduled bargaining session is March 21, 2025. We are hopeful that the District’s bargaining team will, with your encouragement, agree to get started on Article 17 (healthcare) and invite our faculty to open bargaining. Please consider commenting at the BOT meeting on February 19, 2025, regarding the importance of timely healthcare bargaining (5 PM, open session comment) and/or open bargaining (4 PM, closed session comment). For additional information and assistance, please contact Kelsey Iino (kiino@elcamino.edu) or the Federation (eccfederation@gmail.com).

Federation Team:

Laura Saldarriaga, FT Chemistry

John Baranski, FT History

Laila Dellapasqua, PT ESL

Kelsey Iino, FT Counseling

Ahrien Johnson, CFT Representative

Nic McGrue, FT Law

Darcie McClelland, FT Biology

Troy Moore, FT Chemistry

Joe Weichman, PT Robotics

District Team:

Jane Miyashiro, VPHR

Randy Erickson, District Legal Counsel

Carlos Lopez, VPAA

Kristina Martinez, Acting Dean, Enrollment Services

Katie Sundara, Associate Dean, ITEC

In solidarity,

The Federation Bargaining Team