***Next Union meeting: Tuesday October 25th at 7pm, 447 29th Street in Oakland. Call-in option available***
Union Bargaining Update, October 14, 2016
Over the past two bargaining sessions, the administration has presented counterproposals that will move all current lecturers to senior lecturer status and pay grade, and, for the first time ever, grant non-ranked faculty the right to grieve non-promotion.
These are major gains, and they have happened because of the pressure adjuncts and lecturers have put on the administration in recent months. These gains come from the posters that have gone up on the walls, the letters and petitions you signed and circulated, the many faculty who have witnessed our bargaining sessions, the action at the all-faculty meeting, the stories you’ve told, the students you’ve talked to, and the calls you’ve made.
Working together has a tremendous effect. We still have more to do to secure a complete and fair contract, but it can and will be done with your continued help and support! See below for ways you can help right now.
Here is where things stand:
Job security: The administration team has stated repeatedly that it has no intention of making meaningful changes to the current system. This means that in order to reach a contract that provides us with the protections and professional respect we unionized for, members need to step out and give the process visible support. At each of the bay area colleges that now have union contracts, breakthroughs were made when members put their names, faces, and bodies out in front of the effort. We need to do this too, and we can!
Compensation: at Friday’s bargaining session, the administration’s lawyer, Michael Vartain, claimed that our proposal on compensation and benefits was irrationally high but he flatly refused to present a counterproposal. The session ended before schedule when Mr. Vartain decided he did not like our lead negotiator’s requests for more specific guidance, and left the room with his team.
We must point out that total non-ranked faculty compensation, which covers more than 75% of CCA’s teaching lines, takes up less than 5% of the school’s budget.
We have always understood negotiation to be a give and take process; Mr. Vartain’s stance demands that we bargain against ourselves. This does not represent good faith exchange towards an agreement, but we have, in the interest of moving negotiations forward, decided to prepare a new proposal on compensation for the next bargaining session on October 21.
How you can help move negotiations forward and stand up for our rights:
• Help distribute our amazing chapbooks this week and the next 2 weeks.
• Attend (in person or call-in) the next CCA Adjunct Union meeting (Tuesday October 25th at 7pm in Oakland)
• Help make phone calls for upcoming actions
• Help hang posters
• Contribute creative work/ideas for future actions
Contact Jessica Lawless [email protected] for details and to let her know what you can do.
In case you feel you haven’t read enough about contingent faculty struggles and how they are embedded in the broader social justice landscape, we are going to start including readings we have found particularly relevant in our e-blasts. To start, a beautiful piece by New Faculty Majority President/Executive Director, Maria Maisto:
Checking our Privileges are Faculty Organizer Learning Conditions
“It was easy, and therapeutic, to work on the adjunct crisis because there are so few authentic complexities to it, only largely manufactured ones: artificial job scarcity, a manipulation of supply and demand, conscious decisions to automate and scale what should not be automated and cannot be scaled, old-fashioned elitism laced with sexism and racism, and finally, a deliberate undermining of the responsibilities of faculty and the rights of students. In response, the course of action is clear: Organize. Demand compensation that reflects the value of the work of education and respects the people who engage in it. Insist on ethical hiring and evaluation practices. Commit to clearly articulated principles and values, like academic freedom shared governance, due process. Work the inside and the outside, finding policy solutions when possible.”
https://culturalcapitaldoesntpaytherent.com/2016/10/17/checking-our-privilege/