As expected, PJC's "impartial" special committee tasked with resolving the disputed issues at impasse between the College and PJCFA decided to adopt the College's recommendations in total.
The special committee, composed of Board of Trustees members Chair John O'Connor, Carol Carlan and Vice-Chair Ed Moore, vowed that they had agonized over the decisions but simply could not allow any language which would add to the College's financial obligations at this time. This language included the College's own proposal of a 3% annual raise contingent upon stable funding and enrollment. The committee even rejected a simple requirement that faculty have at least a 12 hour hiatus between evening classes and morning classes the next day, as this requirement might limit the College's flexibility.
The decision, arrived at after brief 15 minute presentations from each side, took approximately 15 minutes. There was no detailed discussion of the many unresolved issues. Instead, it was decided that the Administration's position would be accepted in its entirety.
The special committee's recommendation will be presented to the full Board of Trustees at the June meeting Tuesday, June 16, at 5:30 p.m. in the newly renovated Board of Trustees Room. Please attend this meeting if at all possible. After the formality of the BOT accepting the committee's recommendation, the imposed resolutions will be put to a ratification vote.
14 comments:
What happens if the faculty does not ratify this contract?
Second that. What happens if the faculty does not ratify the contract? Does it negate or have an effect on future bargaining?
I think the BOT members have been acting in good faith. And honestly I don't want to drag something out that would stress the faculty in any way more than they have been in the past year.
I want to have the next year be as stress free as possible for faculty and non-faculty.
Can't we all just get along? Why do we need a union anyway? The administration and the board of trustees are really doing everything in their power to be fair and generous to us. After all it is a priviledge to teach here and we shouldn't rock the boat. Let's just take what they give us and be happy and stress free.
Jim,
We are very thankful that we have the contract and the union. The people around here in the 80s knew what they were doing. Thank you, thank you, thank you, all you union folk for all that you do. That being said, I'd reiterate that I think the board is acting in good faith and it would be pointless to drag us through more drama that we don't want to stomach.
If we didn't have a union then the Administration could arbitrarily tell you that you had to teach an extra class each term because finances were in dire straits. And it wouldn't have to be consistent from department to department or from faculty member to faculty member - and that just scratches the surface. It was practices such as these that caused faculty to vote for a union back in the 80s. Having a contract was the best thing that could happen to our faculty.
Well lets see, we could not ratify a contract for the past year that ends in two weeks and refuse to accept the negative changes where all they have done is made the language in our contract worse than the one we had. We could not ratify and have an effect on future bargaining by showing for ONCE in forever that faculty will NOT accept going backwards, will NOT simply ratify any possible contract the administration decides on. Or, we could ratify, and then for next year the administration will probably figure hey cool we can reduce their salary by 10% and double their class size and they will sign and take what we give them and be happy and stress free. Drink the KoolAide.
There is money for fancy $100K boardroom upgrades.
There is money to lease new land to add to campuses.
There is money to print a thousand copies of GLO objectives in multicolors on cardstock that have no place to go but the circular bin.
But there is no money to pay faculty for work they are already required to do according to the Special Magistrate and thus should be compensated.
Angel, a piece of software, can have a 12 hour or more hiatus and somehow administration can deal with it.
But administration would not be able to cope in these troubled economic times with allowing faculty (AKA human beings) to have a 12 hour teaching hiatus to rest at night if they so desire. It is critical that they be able to force you to accept a schedule of teaching until 10pm and then a 7:30am class if you want to work here, so that they can feel they at least have control over your life even if they can't control their software.
Drink the KoolAide.
Just do your job well and you will be rewarded. It really is that simple at the community college level. Unions and contracts are not needed and in fact have set faculty back probably ten years in salary since it all started back in 1980's.
Why do we need a union and a contract? Because if we didn't have one, administration could be firing senior faculty at will as they have been doing in the support services areas.
Administration could double class sizes without faculty having any say.
Administration could require faculty to teach online courses, overloads, etc. without any recourse.
"Just do your job well and you will be rewarded"? What college do you teach at? We have a superior faculty here at PJC who contribute to our #1 completion rate in the state, yet where is our reward?
Why is there money to lease land in hopes that someday PJC will be able to purchase it, when the BOT is unwilling to approve minimal changes in overload pay, promotion pay, and office hours during the summer because the BOT isn't willing to incur any more financial obligations?
The heart of a college is its people---not land. This college has been unwilling to invest in its people (except senior administrators) for years. This shortsightedness isn't healthy for the college . . . period.
The union stands up for faculty. If it doesn't, who do you think will?
A neutral, and detached Special Magistrate sees things one way, and rules in part for the PJCFA, and in part for the PJC Administration. However, the "neutral" BOT Committee sides with the Administration 100 percent?! The BOT should be ashamed of themselves. How many VP's, Provosts, etc., do we have? Also, how many full-time faculty position openings are going unfilled only to be staffed by overworked and underpaid adjuncts? Asinine!!!
In my June 15 post I was being satirical. Those who know me got it; those who don't, oh well.
I am a charter member of PJCFA and will retire a member of PJCFA. I have been the beneficiary of PJCFA's involvement in personal negotiations with the administration. We were not always successful, but I knew they had my back.
I do not believe that the administration has the best interest of PJC, it's students, faculty and staff in mind as they negotiatie. Add to that that the BOT has shown that they are just puppets. Why such "respectable members of the community" would allow themselves to be a part of this "rubber stamp" board is beyond me. Can the prestige of being on the PJC BOT be such a high "honor" that they "sell out" their individual conscious.
PJC has been on a goverment bailout for years, due to low enrollments, and like many busineeses that are on the current bailout, if they don't change the way they do business the results won't change.
The administration is still trying to use a model that worked back in the 60's, "we are here... they need us... they will come..." When you are the only game in town that might work. Today we compete with UWF, Troy, Pensacola Christian College, Virginia College and several other institutions.
I am not going to imply that PJC can fix our low enrollment numbers by throwing money at faculty salaries; although it sure would be nice to have kept up with the cost of living over the last 20+ years. However, I will say that it is hard for faculty who have been here for many years to stay "pumped up" about what a great place PJC is, when they don't feel as though their efforts are respected, and feel that they are taken for granted, by the administration.
IF...PJC wants to survive, they need to ditch their "Peanutbutter and Jelly College" mentality, as several students refer to PJC, and start looking at a business model that will recruit the "Best" students, by showing them why PJC is the "Best" COLLEGE, with the "BEST" faculty and staff, to prepare them for their future. It takes a lot to be the "best" at anything. My advice to the administration would be to start treating your faculty and staff as if you "really believe they are the best."
As for the Faculty...we have seen that tenure has no teeth at PJC, we just thought it did. When the administration can say we are going to start cutting from the top, where is tenure? Why not negotiate a 5 year renewable tenure. I know there is a lot of fear about retribution by vindictive administrators, but what stops them now? With a 5 year newable tenure we show that we don't want to keep "dead wood" on the payroll either. If at the end of 5 years, your tenure is renewed if you are performing, if not you have a probationary period in which to remediate the situation. If you fail to remediate, then your tenure is not renewed and you revert to a year-to-year contract, at the discretion of the administration.
PJC's administration and faculty need to rethink what/who we are. We are a business and we are in competiion for customers,i.e. students. If the current model is not providing a large enough customer base then we need to adjust the model. We do not have a "captive" customer base as we did in the 60's. Things have changed and we need to change or we will be "out-of-business."
I do not post anonymous becasue I am not ashamed of what I say. I openly speak my mind and am open to debate. My comments are not meant to offend the administration, BOT, or faculty. I only hope to stimulate dialogue.
I have never heard of 5 year renewable tenure before, and I hope to NEVER again.
Okay, many of you are not here as I usually am not, but I hope you check this out and make note. The school has advertised three positions in the last couple weeks. All are professional/administrative or administrative assistant positions. This is why so many of our tenured professors had to leave. It turns out that our budget cuts were not so severe. Did we fill those needed positions in math and English? Did we do it even with lower paid new instructors? No, we are hiring more administrators and assistants so that the current administrators don't have to do anything to earn their outrageous salaries. This is not a "NEW" thing. It is old, it is ongoing, and it is never ending unless, like the Berlin Wall, we stop allowing it to define us. What is all this crap about union/no union? I actually think we might have higher salaries without the union, but I also know that without the union, we would have 60-70% adjuncts and administrators outnumbering us 3 to 1. There is always more money than we need to operate the school. If not, we wouldn't exist. Nothing continues if it has no money to operate. What the BOT and President tell us is lies. Accept it. The only power we have is the union, and in Florida, that power is almost non-existent, but at least we can let it be known that we are being screwed, that we know that we are being screwed, and that we know who is screwing us. Without the union, it's just a bunch of us bitching in the break room or the john. I don't see a change for the foreseeable future here because the change has to come at the state level to give the union more power or at the grassroots level with a large number of us willing to be arrested and lose our jobs to change the state laws. I don't see either happening. The best we can do is support the union and one another and stop bickering. At this college we are hourly workers who are easily replaced, sometimes just put in our places, and our only saving grace is having at least one voice from amazing volunteers(whom I could never willingly or emotionally or forcibly replace)who actually work for us. I have been here long enough to see all administrators who support faculty be forced to resign, be fired, or be pushed (threatened/coerced) into roles that they simply didn't want or didn't believe in. This is a losing battle, but it is a battle in which we can have a thousand casualties or five hundred casualties. The union is the only thing keeping us from total subservience. Why even joke about what life would be like without it? I already have eight or nine students above cutoff levels for fall. I am certain that the union did not do this. I am also certain the the college will do what it can to have me teach an extra class of students without compensation. What are you willing to give up? Exactly whom are you going to support?
I AM URGING ALL MY FACULTY COLLEAGUES TO VOTE "NO" ON THE CONTRACT. IF WE VOTE YES, THE THE UNION IS DONE, OUR PENDING GRIEVANCE CAN'T BE HEARD, AND WE WILL DEVELOP INTO A PLANTATION TYPE INSTITUTION. IF WE VOTE "NO" THEN THE NEUTRAL(YEAH, RIGHT), BOARD OF TRUSTEES CANNOT STOP OUR GRIEVANCE FROM GOING FORWARD TO ANOTHER NEUTRAL MAGISTRATE, AND HERE'S THE BEST PART, THEY DON'T GET A SAY AND THE DECISION IS BINDING. VOTE NO, NO, NO AND ASK EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO VOTE NO!!!!
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