Victor Valley part-timers spearhead needed change on campus
AFT Part-Time Faculty Federation has become active like never before. President Lynne Glickstein reports that with the support of the CFT, the union got educated and got smart.
Local leaders in Victorville learned how to read and analyze the college budget, not only putting them in a more advantageous position to bargain their contract but leading them to expose some unacceptable administrative practices. This resulted in multiple resignations by top administrators, middle management, and even a board trustee, hopefully clearing the way for more student- and labor-supportive management and trustees.
“As a part-time-only local, it’s not always easy to get a lot of people involved in our work,” Glickstein explains. Part-timers are busy and their responsibilities and commitments are often spread across several worksites, “but we’ve made a lot of progress. We need to work within our unions, and with other organizations to get, for example, the 75:25 ratio [state law requiring that 75 percent of courses be taught by full-time faculty] enforced, which so many colleges, including ours, are not complying with.”
During the last year, the local forged alliances with people in the community “who hadn’t tended to see unions as their friends,” including business leaders, ex-officials, and even a former college president, explains Glickstein. “They began seeing the value of union activity to make our college a better place.”
Glickstein also looks forward to more collaboration between her AFT local and the unions representing full-time faculty and classified staff on campus. “We don’t want to be divided,” she concludes.
Allan Hancock contract guarantees parity funds
According to Allan Hancock College Part-Time Faculty Association President Mark Miller, the local closed the “parity disparity” between part- and full-time faculty at the Santa Maria college in a newly ratified contract with a salary schedule that includes parity funds for part-time faculty.
Ten years of effort finally culminated in “an approximately 10.4 percent increase for credit lecture instructors, and 4 percent for all the other salary schedules” thanks to cost-of-living-adjustments and Prop. 30 funds.
In other gains, the local negotiated a 20 percent increase in office hour pay, a salary schedule for non-credit instructors that recognizes advanced education, and stronger seniority rights for counselors.
Affordable Care Act enrollment now open
Don’t be surprised when you receive notification from your employer of the launch of the Affordable Care Act, called Covered California in our state. Employers are required to notify all employees that they may enroll in a health care exchange.
If you are uninsured or only partially insured, Covered California may provide you the option to purchase reduced-rate health insurance. The initial six-month open enrollment period begins October 1 and lasts through March 31, 2014.
>To enroll, go to the state-sanctioned Covered California website.
Union-sponsored overload bill stated in Legislature
CFT-sponsored AB 950 (Chau, D-Alhambra), which would limit full-time faculty overload to 50 percent of a full load, cleared the Assembly and the Senate Committee on Education, before landing in the Senate Appropriations suspense file.
CFT faculty and staff collaborated with Chau to place a reasonable limit on full-time faculty overload. Part-timers Linda Sneed, left, and Pete Virgadamo, right, are pictured with Assemblyman Ed Chau and CFT Legislative Director Mónica Henestroza, after testifying in the Legislature.
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