The Federation annually holds an Adjunct Equity Week to recognize and address the disparities that exist between adjunct and tenure-track employment. This week is a time for faculty, students, and staff to participate in engaging and informative activities to make progress toward closing the equity gap that persists as a result of the two-tiered employment system that exists across colleges. CFT says this about the importance of Adjunct Equity week:

Campus Equity Week is a time of education and activism that draws attention to the working conditions of faculty working on temporary, low-paid contracts. In general, the time to plan actions is during the last two weeks of October. What’s even more important is for campus communities (faculty, students, staff, and administrators) to get the word out this fall before the budget and legislative process begins.

Adjunct Equity Week 2022

Events and Activities:

Share Your Story!

Working From Home Ergonomics: Setting up a Remote Office

Landing a Full-Time Faculty Position

Friday, October 30,

2020: Spooky Trivia Night

Additional Resources

What is campus equity week?

At the October 19, 2020 BOT meeting, the Trustees approved the 2020-2022 Tentative agreement between the District and Federation. The new contract is in effect until December 31, 2022. We will post the new contract and relevant pages on our website once the final formatting is done.

For a summary of the proposed contract changes, you can refer to:  https://aft1388.org/negotiations-update-8-17-20

We cannot emphasize enough how this is not the contract we deserve. We will be back at the table in less than 2 years. With your help, we can be in a stronger position at the bargaining table next time. Please get involved and lend a hand. See the different committee options below. Have other ideas? We would love to hear them. 

There are two action items this fall that we wanted to tell you about. With the new contract, there will soon be a committee to review labs, studios, supplemental instruction classes, and other classes that are not paid hour for hour. Known as lecture-lab parity, any lab that requires extensive instruction can now go through a review process and be reclassified. Instead of getting 75% credit towards your teaching load per hour, you can get 1 for 1 credit if your application is approved. We encourage you to review your program course offerings and get your application in before the deadline. If you miss this year’s deadline, departments and programs can also submit applications in Fall 2021. The deadline for 2020/2021 is November 16th. Deadlines and application requirements can be found in Article 8, Section 5 and Appendix O of the new agreement.

The other pressing action item is a campus-wide push to reactivate Division Load committees. Division Load committees review the student course caps and course workload to ensure fairness. Here too there will be an application process, reviewed first at the Division level and then at the campus level. For many programs, this process of review has not happened in a long time even though the demands of our work have changed with technology and new policies. For example, we are now expected (even pre-pandemic) to be more available to students with email and, if you chose to use it, Canvas. Student caps for some classes were set in the days before the establishment of SLOs, but the new SLOs might require faculty to evaluate extensive writing assignments and teach critical thinking skills that they did not do in the past. If you have courses in this category, you can make an appeal to lower your student course caps. 

In unity,

Your Executive Board

Part Time Committee

• Focuses on improving part time working conditions
• Co-chairs: Selene Torres, storres@elcamino.edu and Juli Wolfgram, jwolfgram@elcamino.edu
  

Grievance Committee

• Handles grievances and trains grievance officers
• Chair: John Baranski, jbaranski@elecamino.edu
  

Committee on Political Education (COPE)

• Focuses on BOT elections and legislation
• Chair: Juli Wolfgram, 2388COPE@gmail.com
  

Membership Organizing

• Works on member education and organizing
• Chair: Hong Herrera Thomas, hherrera@elcamino.edu
  

Communications Committee

• Handles website, social media, press releases
• Co-chairs: Kelsey Iino, kiino@elcamino.edu and John Baranski, jbaranski@elecamino.edu
  

Contract Research Committee

• Works on gathering data for contract negotiations and other union projects
• Chair: Troy Moore, tmoore@elcamino.edu
  

The results of the September 13 to September 19 contract ratification vote are in. 184 members voted yes to approve the tentative agreement while 16 members voted no.

The next step is for the BOT to vote on the tentative agreement at their October 19, 2020 meeting. If the BOT approves the agreement, then our new contract will be in effect. We will then post the new contract on the website and update the relevant pages.

We will be back at the table in less than 2 years. With your help, we hope to be in a stronger position at the bargaining table next time. Please get involved and lend a hand.

As we wait for the BOT vote, here is a summary of the proposed changes in the tentative agreement: https://aft1388.org/negotiations-update-8-17-20

The specific tentative agreements themselves can all be viewed at

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iBHi4BXG7erVnEPwEXujc4BADT6HpFrP?usp=sharing

For questions on the tentative agreement, please write us at eccfederation@gmail.com

Contract Ratification Vote: Sept. 13 to Sept. 19

The Federation has scheduled the ratification vote from 8:00 AM September 13 to 8:00 PM September 19. The vote will be done with Election Buddy, which is a secure online voting platform. Federation members will soon receive a secure link in their email.

Only dues paying members of the Federation can vote on the proposed contract and all votes are confidential. If you do not receive your ballot, please send us an email at eccfederation@gmail.com

As a member, you will have the option to vote no, vote yes, or abstain. A simple majority of votes will determine the results.

A “yes vote” will ratify the contract. It will then be sent to the BOT  for ratification. At that point, the contract will be in effect from January 1st, 2020 through December 31st, 2022.

A “NO VOTE” will constitute a rejection of the proposed contract. If we do not approve the contract, this will further delay the contract negotiations process and the related gains in health benefits and non-monetary improvements in our working conditions. Additionally, if we end up in mediation, it likely will be a long process and any recommendations from the mediator are not binding. Accordingly, the District will be free to offer the same contract, or worse.

Again, we strongly believe that ratification of this agreement and avoidance of the impasse/mediation process is in the best interest of all faculty on campus. We will be back at the table in less than 2 years and with your help we hope to be in a stronger position than we are now.

A summary of the proposed changes can be found at https://aft1388.org/negotiations-update-8-17-20

The specific tentative agreements themselves can all be viewed at 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iBHi4BXG7erVnEPwEXujc4BADT6HpFrP?usp=sharing

For questions on the proposed contract, please write us at eccfederation@gmail.com

At 3 PM on Friday, August 28, the Federation will have a general membership meeting to allow members to vote on language to amend our Constitution so we can vote online (electronically) for contracts. Given the need to focus on safety in the age of COVID and the significant improvements in electronic voting platforms, the Executive Board proposes changes to Articles VIII and XIV of our Constitution to permit online voting.

To see the current AFT 1388 Constitution, go here. To see the proposed changes to Articles VIII and XIV, click here.

The Executive Board recommends a YES vote for the proposed changes to Articles VIII and XIV in our Constitution. Without these changes, we will not be able to vote on our 2020-2022 contract.

Our general membership meeting will begin at 3 PM. Members can join the meeting via Zoom by using the information below. When we have quorum, we will motion to approve the proposed language changes. If we have a second to this motion, we will discuss and vote on the changes. This will be the only item on the agenda. Executive Board members will be available after deliberations for general questions and updates.

Special General Membership Meeting

Friday, August 28⋅3:00 – 4:00pm

Meeting ID: 826 5826 7948 Passcode: 814684

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82658267948?pwd=TVZMUWEwckFRSGRkYlNBbmdNM3MwUT09

Meeting ID: 826 5826 7948

Passcode: 814684

Monday, August 17, 2020

Dear colleagues,

We have reached a tentative agreement with the District. 

Unfortunately, it is clear that the VPs, President, and a majority of BOTs do not fully value what we do. Furthermore, the ongoing global pandemic and economic contraction have led to delays, budget tightening, and reduction of funding for education at every level. Amidst these challenges, we believe we have negotiated the best possible contract that will substantively improve pay and working conditions for all faculty while simultaneously providing the best security of employment possible. Below is a summary of the past year at the bargaining table.

In March, when the administration delayed closing campus despite the growing scientific evidence that remaining open posed a threat to everyone on campus, the Federation pushed for the closure of campus to protect the safety of all employees and students while maintaining some semblance of continuity of education. 

When we abruptly transitioned to remote instruction with minimal time to prepare, the District made it very clear that the mountain of work associated with the transition to working from our homes should be done for free. We put safety and meeting our students’ needs first and for the rest of the term supported our students and did the work of the college. Once everyone was safe, we set to work rectifying this pay inequity for the additional work that we all had to do by negotiating a pair of memoranda of understanding (MOU) to further protect safety and provide some compensation for the extra work.

When the administration received federal CARES funding in the spring, they only offered to allocate some of the CARES funding for the following stipends for the transition: 

• $600 – For Non-Instructional Faculty
• $800 – For Instructional Faculty who converted one class
• $1000 – For Instructional Faculty who converted more than one class
  

As you know, we worked hard to achieve more adequate compensation and negotiated the following on our behalf: 

• $600 – For Part-time Non-Instructional Faculty
• 1000 – For Full-time Non-Instructional Faculty
• $1000 – For Instructional Faculty who converted one class
• $1400 – For Instructional Faculty who converted more than one class
• $1000 – For technology/instructional supplies for all Faculty
• $650 – For instructional faculty who complete SPOCK. 
  

In that second MOU, we negotiated substantial job and safety protections as we did in the first COVID MOU. 

For the 2019-2022 Contract negotiations, here is a summary of the proposed changes in our contract. 

Non-monetary changes

• Reduction of required weekly on-campus days from 4 to 3. 
• Improvements to the part-time faculty Rehire Priority List (RPL)
• Improvements to the ease of understanding and implementation of evaluations (Article 20)

Monetary changes

With this contract, we continue to fall behind our peers in overall compensation. But we did make some significant and groundbreaking gains.

Health care 

Full time

• Single: District contribution increased from $590 per month to $717
• 2 Party: District contribution increased from $1022 per month to $1231
• Family: District contribution increased from $1328 per month to $1542
  

Part time

• District health care stipend of $75 for ALL part-time faculty, per semester
• Two paid office hours at the D-1 Step 1 Lecture rate for ALL part-time faculty, per semester
  

Salary

The District received 3.26% COLA for 2019/2020 and is fully funded in 2020/21. Funding for 2021/22 is unknown at this point, though it does not look promising. The District’s negotiating team explicitly said they and the President and Board of Trustees will not agree to any raise for the duration of this agreement. By the end of negotiations, after months of discussions, we even asked for a 0.5% raise and the District’s team remained firm in their position.

Lab/lecture pay parity process: This may positively impact workload and pay for faculty whose classes qualify and are granted this status (currently laboratory hours are paid at 75% the rate of lecture hours instead of 100% as they are at other colleges).

We have tentatively scheduled the contract ratification vote for September. We strongly recommend that you approve the agreement with the District. While this contract may not encapsulate every improvement that you wished to see, we sincerely hold that this is the best agreement achievable and, as outlined above, there are tangible monetary and non-monetary improvements provided to every faculty member on campus.

Additionally, we strongly recommend that you get involved in your union. We have the opportunity to change 3 of the 5 Board of Trustee (BOT) seats in November. The BOT has the power to set the priorities in our budgets and hire and release our administrators. 

The Federation’s Executive Board has a two-year plan to build our union’s power. We encourage you personally to be involved in this process as well as the upcoming BOT elections. For more information, please see our website: aft1388.org

If we do not approve the contract, we will likely go to impasse and then mediation. This will further delay the contract, and the related gains in health benefits and non monetary changes. Additionally, the mediation process is not binding, nor will our tentative agreements hold. Accordingly, the District is free to offer the same language, or worse language, 6-12 months from now. Again, we strongly believe that ratification of this agreement and avoidance of the impasse/mediation process is in the best interest of all faculty on campus.  

We will have general membership meetings to discuss the contract on Tuesday August 18, 2020 from 3-5 and Wednesday August 18, 2020 from 3-5. To join either meeting, here is the Zoom info:

Meeting ID: 856 4753 9567

Passcode: 649470

For members, we want to remind you that we will have a member-only Zoom meeting on Friday, August 28, 2020 to vote on a much needed change in our Constitution to allow electronic voting and ratification. It will likely be in the afternoon, please mark your schedule. 

In unity,

John Baranski, Troy Moore, and Laura Saldarriaga 

Federation Contract Negotiation Team

LOS ANGELES – UTLA and LAUSD reached a tentative agreement late Sunday night that meets UTLA’s top priorities of protecting the health and safety of staff and students; closing the digital divide through a “smart start” to the school year and technology support; strengthening crisis distance learning to maintain daily school routines; expanding socio-emotional support during this period of trauma; and ensuring educator discretion and flexibility in recognition of the unprecedented circumstances in which we are living.  “When LAUSD school campuses closed in March, educators, parents and students had to adapt to an emergency moment, and over just a few days. This time, it was important to think through the challenges and to incorporate feedback from that experience — using information from a parent and member surveyand feedback from members — which is reflected in this final agreement,” said UTLA Bargaining Co-Chair Arlene Inouye.

The agreement will next go to the LAUSD School Board for a vote as well as a vote of UTLA members next week. If ratified by UTLA members, the agreement will remain in force until December 31, 2020, or until students physically return to LAUSD schools for regular instruction. UTLA and LAUSD will continue bargaining the necessary conditions for a physical reopening of schools. Some key highlights of the TA: Daily live interaction. An average school day from 9 AM to 2:15 PM. The defined schedule meets the requirements of state law (SB 98).  Targeted small group instruction, as well as time to focus on social emotional needs of our students. 

Opportunities for ongoing projects, small group work and independent work. Mondays are instructional support days; student instructional days are Tuesday-Friday. Office hours where students and families can connect with teachers. From Aug 20-28, a “Smart Start” to the school year to set the stage for teaching and learning,including using instructional time for walk-through sessions on technology to be used in class and time for outreach to students and parents. The afternoons of August 17-18 shall be used for planning and preparation for the beginning of the Academic Year. The afternoon of August 19 shall be used to make initial contact with students and families to make introductions and to explain procedures. A flexible work schedule for non-classroom educators and Early Childhood Educators,  to meet the needs of students. “This agreement will be brought to life by educators, students and parents.

This MOU is not an end point — it’s a beginning,” said UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz. “We must invest more resources to create healthy and safe schools and to build on this MOU with responsiveness to feedback from educators, parents, and students.”

Source: https://www.utla.net/news/utla-and-lausd-reach-tentative-agreement

Key checkpoints for physical reopening in the time of the coronavirus

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools and colleges across California were shuttered to prevent further spread of the coronavirus. Staff remaining on campus performed the challenging duties of distance learning support, meal preparation and pick-up, and deep cleaning to maintain educational services during shelter-in-place orders, as well as prepare for eventual physical reopening. In the union’s document, Checklist for Safely Reopening Schools & Colleges,the CFT does not encourage the physical reopening of school sites until it is safe to do so. 

At a minimum, the CFT recommends coordination with state and local public health guidelines on every checklist item in this document to help prevent further spread of the coronavirus. This document identifies the growing number of issues that should be addressed prior to the physical reopening of a school district through a Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, between the local union and the district. As such, this is a working document that may evolve with changing science and health guidelines from public health and safety agencies.

This helpful checklist list was compiled through a collaborative process between the educational divisions of the CFT, the CFT standing committees, and the California Department of Education Taskforce on School Reopening. The CFT urges AFT local unions to tailor this checklist to local conditions to best assist in ensuring a safe working environment for educators and students now and in the near future. The checklist covers three key areas: General Conditions, Infection Prevention and Labor Relations.

On July 1,  California Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced the 12 measures that have qualified for the November election, along with their ballot numbers. Schools and Communities First, the CFT’s top statewide priority in November, will appear as Proposition 15.  CFT will be urging its members to vote “Yes on 15!” to close corporate property tax loopholes and raise up to $12 billion a year in revenue for schools and local communities.

While this measure has long been a priority for CFT members so that we can move California from the bottom of per pupil education spending in this country to the top, it will be even more critical as our schools and the communities they serve begin to deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Proposition 15 qualified in April 2020 with a record number of 1.7 million signatures, more than any measure has ever gathered. Grassroots support has steadily been building for this measure, and it has earned the endorsement of prominent Californians, like State Superintendent of Instruction Tony Thurmond and big city mayors like Libby Schaff in Oakland, Eric Garcetti in Los Angeles, and MIchael Tubbs in Stockton. Vice President Joe Biden also registered his support early on for Schools & Communities First.

As the union’s political efforts get underway this fall, members can expect to hear more about why this measure is so critical to our work as educators and classified employees. There will be many opportunities to get involved and ways to help spread the word about why this revenue measure will be so critical to the long-term health of communities across the state of California.  Let’s all work together to make sure this measure passes in November: Yes on Prop 15!

Source: https://www.cft.org/article/schools-communities-first-gets-its-ballot-number