Negotiations Update Fall 2014
Here are the highlights of this new contract:
- Return to Rank Ten salary schedules for the first time since 2008-09
- Continuation of Kaiser and SISC Blue Shield medical group plans
- Increased compensation for faculty chairs guaranteed for the next three years
- Defined job duties and increased compensation for faculty coordinators
- Increased compensation for faculty with lab assignments that require significant preparation and assessment. (Implementation subject to Senate-District Task Force findings)
- Increased compensation for faculty with Work Experience assignments
- Increased compensation and reader support for faculty with large-lecture assignments
- Uniform maximum class sizes for each course based on "pedagogical principles"
- Accessibility compliance support for faculty with online assignments
- Contract page count reduced by 15 percent, with clearer and more understandable content
Even though it's been only four months since negotiations on the new contract were finalized, the AFA team is back at the table with the District, working on a number of contractual issues for 2015-16. Of course, the final discussions on the big-ticket items—salary and health benefits—await the outcome of the State budget process for 2015-16.
Budget and Salary
In 2014-15, the California Community College (CCC) budget grew by $1.3 billion, its largest annual budget increase ever. The bad news was that nearly half of that increase was applied to eliminate the so-called "wall of debt" (the existing deferrals of payments to CCC started in the Schwarzenegger years), and that the Governor, attempting to play a fiscal conservative in an election year, cut the COLA from the statutory level of 1.80 percent to 0.85 percent. As a result, SRJC's 2014-15 budget was not quite as rosy as it appeared at first blush back in January.
But hope springs eternal in the human breast, and that's never truer than when looking forward to the next year's budget. With a composite 8.0 percent faculty salary increase over the last two years, SRJC faculty have returned to the top echelon of CCC faculty salary schedules, achieving Rank Ten in 2014-15. There's certainly reason to be optimistic about reaching Rank Ten once again in 2015-16. The good news for 2015-16 is that the CCC wall of debt is mostly gone, possibly freeing up most of that $600 million funding stream in this year's CCC budget to the direct benefit of students, faculty, and staff. Also, early projections of statutory COLA for 2015-16 are around 2.3 percent, and the 2015-16 CCC budget proposal from the Chancellor's office calls for an additional $180 million of "super-COLA" for CCC to offset the lack of adequate financial support in the last five years. The Chancellor is also calling for a complete restoration of funding for the three part-time faculty salary and benefits categorical programs that were slashed by 62 percent in 2010. (A summary of all items in the Chancellor's 2015-16 budget request may be found at http://www.santarosa.edu/afa/CCC.pdf.)
A lot can happen, however—both good and bad—between now and June when the budget is eventually approved by the Legislature. Presently, AFA is working with FACCC and CCCI in Sacramento to help implement the Chancellor's budget proposal provisions, especially with respect to COLA and the part-time faculty categoricals restoration. (Visit the advocacy page on the AFA website to see how you can help.)
Benefits
The AFA Executive Council has also identified the long-term sustainability of faculty medical benefits funding as another major negotiations task for 2015-16. Since 2001, District revenues have grown 19 percent, while District benefits expenditures have grown 98 percent over that same period. During the recession, the faculty "rainy day" account for medical benefits, AHWBA (see AFA Contract §10.05.E), has been drawn down to a balance at which it will no longer match the fiscal demands of even a moderate adjustment in medical benefits costs in 2015-16.
AFA plans to address this situation with a two-prong attack. First, AFA will work with the District to restructure Article 10, based on the premise that while AFA and the District share the obligation to negotiate a financially sustainable agreement on benefits, the District still has the contractual obligation to provide a comprehensive medical benefits plan for full-time faculty and to also provide the opportunity for part-time faculty to participate in the AMBP (see AFA Contract §10.04.B). Second, AFA will join with SEIU in bringing pressure to bear on our benefits providers for cost containment; we hope to engage the District in this goal as well.
Also on the Negotiations Table This Year . . .
- Due Process. AFA continues its attempt to engage the District in a timely negotiation of faculty due-process rights. This negotiation has stretched on for nearly three years now. Despite this glacial pace of progress, the AFA team hopes to wrap up discussions this year.
- Hourly Assignments. AFA's interests in revising Article 16 are (a) protecting current reassignment rights for hourly faculty, (b) making the department assignment process simpler and more transparent, and (c) providing more security to hourly faculty. A task force team of contract and adjunct faculty, chaired by AFA President Julie Thompson, is working with the District on this revision.
- Online Workload. AFA and the District are working on compensation for lab courses that require significant preparation and assessment and on accessibility support for online instructors.
- Professional Growth Increments (PGI). At the request of a number of faculty members, AFA will bring a proposal to revise the PGI process this year.
- Load Banking. At the request of a number of faculty members, AFA will bring a proposal to establish load-banking rights for full-time faculty this year.
As negotiations progress this academic year, you will be receiving more updates. Feel free to contact the AFA office or email me directly (wruud@santarosa.edu) if you have comments or questions on negotiation issues.