WHAT HAS AFA BEEN DOING FOR YOU LATELY?

In these uncertain times, you may be asking yourself: What has AFA been doing for me lately?

In light of recent challenges to unions at both the state and national level, it is all the more important to understand how you benefit from your AFA membership. Day in and day out, AFA is busy advocating for ALL faculty—by responding to numerous phone calls and email messages to AFA staff and officers; through representation of its members in meetings with department chairs, deans and other administrators; by providing publications and sponsoring events of interest to faculty members; and, of course, through the year-long negotiations process.

Did you know that AFA has an office that is staffed Monday through Thursday, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., to answer your questions and to provide referrals? Staff members are well versed in the Contract, Board Policy and SRJC procedures. On a daily basis, AFA provides information on:

• CalSTRS credit
• department chair elections
• evaluation processes
• faculty job descriptions
• hourly assignment procedures
• leaves
• reduced workload
• retirement
• salary schedules
• serving on hiring committees
• student consultation (office hour) requirements
• unemployment insurance.

AFA staff members also provide referrals for members who are in need of help by the AFA Conciliation/Grievance officer (mferguson@santarosa.edu). If you have questions, feel free to call (527-4731), email (afa@santarosa.edu) or drop by (our office is located next door to the Copy Center in Analy Village, Building A, Room 649).

A significant part of AFA’s representation includes advocating for the rights of individual faculty members. This is accomplished by our officers, including the Conciliation/Grievance Officer, President, Vice Presidents, Chief Negotiator, and Secretary/Treasurer. All communications with AFA officers and staff members are confidential. Over the past year, AFA officers have assisted individual faculty members in the following ways:

• to get paid for unpaid work
• to get pay for classes that were cancelled
• to get pay for required department meetings
• to get pro rata pay for leave replacement assignments
• to get hourly load/pay for excess contract load
• to correct workload and compensation issues surrounding Faculty Learning Communities
• to correct and/or dismiss non-compliant evaluations
• to correct step placement on the salary schedule
• to correct initial salary placement issues
• to correct placement on department length-of-service lists
• to correct PGI credit issues.

AFA endeavors to keep all faculty members informed by providing timely communications and sponsoring events of interest to faculty. Topics of publications over the past few years have included:

• Adjunct Faculty Q&A
• AFA’s Negotiating Priorities
• Article 16 Revision
• Do You Know What's in Your Personnel File?
• Early Retirement Option
• Faculty Load Banking Primer
• Negotiations Updates
• New Article 16 Primer
• Rank 10 Importance
• SRJC Board of Trustees Elections
• Unemployment Benefits for Adjunct Faculty.

Our most recent Dialogue piece is AFA’s response to the Fall 2016 schedule cuts (see: Who's Minding the Store?), and an archive of all publications can be found on our AFA Publications page.

In addition, AFA-sponsored events over the past few years have included:

• adjunct Q&A workshops
• PDA sessions
• retirement workshops
• state legislator faculty forums.

Finally, AFA’s six-member negotiations team works relentlessly throughout the year to protect the rights enjoyed in our current 32-Article AFA/District Contract and Salary Schedules and to expand those rights. Here are some of the highlights from the last three years of negotiations:

• AFA has successfully negotiated restoration of Rank 10, which has resulted in increased compensation for ALL faculty. By protecting the linkage between the contract and hourly salary schedules, AFA ensures that the percentage increases that we negotiate apply to all of the hourly schedules. In 2013-14, faculty experienced an overall average increase of 5.3%, in 2014-15 an overall average increase of 2.57%, and in 2015-16 an overall average increase of 2.52%.
• In 2015, AFA negotiated a new Article 16 after a two-year process. Under this revision, all faculty performing hourly assignments have new protections that prevent reductions in established load (formerly called “like load”) when the load performed actually decreases due to future recessions, scheduling conflicts, illness, or other situations. This is especially important considering the District’s planned cuts for Fall 2016. Other gains in the new article include transparency in the process of making hourly assignments, requiring faculty input in creating District Need designations for assignments, simplifying procedures for determining department- and discipline-specific provisions, cleaning up ambiguous language, and closing loopholes that were harming faculty.
• On behalf of faculty, AFA has also negotiated increased load and teaching assistant support for Extended Lecture courses; lab equity; compensation for completing additional evaluations; load banking; salary placement improvement for CTE faculty; new medical benefits options; SLO payment for adjunct faculty members; expanded leave rights; and TA support for hybrid/multiple section courses.

Yes, AFA has been busy! We know that faculty members are on the front lines, and much of what AFA does for you is behind the scenes or confidential in nature. Rest assured, however, that AFA is there, every day, working tirelessly on your behalf. It is our privilege to serve and to represent the faculty of Santa Rosa Junior College, and we thank you for your support.