GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING

Many thanks to all who attended yesterday's general membership meeting and to those who called to let me know you could not attend because of class, labs, or clinics.

The Communicator was distributed as well as other informational handouts. If someone from your department attended, they will be bringing back that information for distribution. The remaining Communicators will be delivered to campus mailboxes.

The discussion was helpful to everyone including the negotiating team. One main thing that people wanted to know was what could they do. The best thing you can do is to continue to perform your professional duties in your normal professional manner. While being at impasse is very hard on morale, I would encourage each of you to continue to step up to that challenge and not let that be a stumbling block to your service to your students and the College.

What else can you do?

• You have the right to contact the Board of Trustees and make them aware of your position. (See earlier postings for names and addresses of BOT members.)
• You have the right to attend the Board of Trustees' meeting this coming Tuesday, November 18 at 5:30pm in the District Board of Trustees' room in Bldg. 7.
• You have the right to express your opinions to the local media.
• You have the right to express your opinion to those you come in contact with daily.
• You have the right to wear your UFF/FEA lapel pin or your UFF shirt showing your support of PJCFA during these times.

You have these rights and you deserve what's right - not what's left.


If you do not have a lapel pin or shirt, please contact Cindy App, capp@pjc.edu or x1462.

RUMOR CONTROL

Earlier today, a member contacted me and asked, "What do you mean that you guys turned down a 3% raise?" Let me assure the membership that the PJCFA negotiating team did no such thing.

At last Thursday's session, the College proposed only replacing the guaranteed 2% annual faculty raise (Article 15.01C of the current CBA) which states “to the extent possible within the budget model” with a “not less than 3% recurring increase,” dependent on “stable fundable enrollment” and “stable CCPF (Community College Program Fund) funding.”

When PJFA Chief Negotiator Paige Anderson asked the College's chief negotiator if this implied a 3% raise for this year, the answer was no.

In essence, the College, which has refused to honor its current 2% commitment to faculty, proposed to change that to a 3% commitment, which it also declined to honor for this year.

After being told no to a raise for this year, PJCFA Chief Negotiator Anderson crossed through the portion of the College's offer stating that the not less than 3% recurring increase was contigent upon stable funding enrollment and stable CCPF. She handed that counter offer to the College's Chief Negotiator who once again said no. At that pointed, impasse was declared.

The session was taped and is a matter of public record for those who would like to hear the session for themselves.

PJCFA DECLARES IMPASSE OVER BARGAINING

Negotiators for the union representing the faculty of Pensacola Junior College declared impasse today after ten months of bargaining. Issues at impasse include salaries and scheduling of professional activities. Negotiators have been unable to agree on base salary increases for all faculty, promotions, and payment for teaching extra classes and performing additional duties.


Paige Anderson, chief negotiator for the Faculty union, expressed her concern about the college’s unwillingness to address compensation. “For over fifteen years, the college has promised to move faculty salaries into the top twenty percent of Florida’s community colleges. Unfortunately, the promise has not been kept and PJC faculty salaries rank near the bottom. We have patiently negotiated for several months in an attempt to find common ground, while the college’s negotiators have offered no salary increases for this year or any guarantee of future compensation.”


According to Charlotte Sweeney, PJCFA president, the faculty union is seeking mediation and will call for a special magistrate, if necessary. “We have asked our staff professional to make arrangements for a federal mediator to assist us in resolving our differences, and we will inform the Public Employees Relations Commission that we have declared impasse. If we are unable to reach an agreement with the college through mediation, we will ask PERC to appoint a special magistrate.”


Ms. Anderson noted that the average PJC faculty salary in 2007 was $44,860 while the state average was $51,057. Additionally, new faculty members with a master’s degree earn a salary of $34,828. Although the college has refused to offer even a cost of living raise this year for faculty, Dr. Ed Meadows, the new PJC president, earns a salary of $193,000, which is eight percent higher than his predecessor, Dr. Tom Delaino.

SABBATICAL LEAVE ANNOUNCEMENT

While this announcement appeared in today's Green & White, I thought it should be repeated here:

Sabbatical leave is awarded to faculty members for the purpose of professional development or advancement and ultimately benefits the faculty member, students and the college.

Each year, the Board of Trustees awards a number of sabbatical leaves for the following academic year, and now is the time for faculty members to begin preparation of their sabbatical leave proposal.

Faculty members who have completed seven full academic years of full–time service as a faculty member at PJC are eligible to apply for sabbatical leave. Eligibility criteria and application procedures are outlined in Article 14, Section 14.07 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The deadline to submit a sabbatical leave application to the Vice President for Instructional Affairs is on or before Jan. 10. Because Jan. 10 is a Saturday, applications are due Friday, Jan. 9.

Bargaining Update: October 9 and October 25 sessions

In the last two sessions, there has been some movement by the Administration on a few issues, but the Board of Trustees is standing firm on most of its previous positions.

Other Professional Activities: PJCFA also proposed that the allowed OPA for counseling and library faculty be increased from 1 hour per week to 20% of affected faculty member’s workweek, still substantially less than the OPA time allowed for teaching faculty.

Since the administration’s position on scheduling OPA is that it is time for faculty to be collegial and participate on committees and other voluntary activities, it is only logical that ALL faculty should be allocated sufficient time to be collegial. However, the Board of Trustees has rejected any language increasing the OPA time for library or counseling faculty.

In addition, the BOT’s only offer on OPA has been to allow faculty teaching online courses to schedule half their OPA time off campus. Since the CBA does not contain any language requiring faculty to designate where OPA is served currently, this offer is meaningless.

The BOT has refused to consider removing the requirement to schedule OPA time on the weekly door schedule. WE ARE CURRENTLY AT IMPASSE ON THIS ISSUE (Article 9).

Retrenchment: PJCFA had proposed adding a second paid year for training of faculty whose programs are being eliminated. The Board countered with an offer of a second unpaid year designated for training. At the October 25 session, the PJCFA accepted the Board’s offer of the second unpaid year with paid health insurance benefits.

Portfolios: At the October 9 session, the BOT presented language removing the use of teaching portfolios for both annual evaluations (Article 11) and promotion (Article 17).

PJCFA accepted the removal of teaching portfolios for annual evaluations (Article 11) and countered with a Letter of Agreement concerning the use of portfolios for promotions (Article 17).

The Board has agreed that portfolios will cease to be accepted promotion applications except in the following two cases: (1) any faculty member applying for promotion in 2009 will be allowed to submit either a portfolio or a packet; (2) all faculty members hired between July 1, 2006, and December 31, 2008, will be allowed to use the portfolio to apply for initial credentialing. If initial credentialing is awarded based on the portfolio, faculty members hired as instructors will be automatically promoted to assistant professor. Thereafter, the portfolio will no longer be used at PJC for promotions.

Failed Promotions: PJCFA proposed that any faculty member who is denied promotion despite available promotion spots be given a summary of the Joint Promotion Committee’s notes concerning the candidate’s promotion packet. The BOT has agreed to insert language guaranteeing that the Academic Vice-President will summarize the Committee’s findings in a letter to be delivered to the failed applicant concurrent with the notification of successful candidates.

Alternate Pay Schedule: PJCFA had proposed a year-round pay schedule for faculty, in which the base salary would be divided by 26, to be paid out bi-weekly from the first paydate in August through June 30. On June 30, the remaining pay would be remitted to the faculty member in one lump sum. The BOT has agreed to this alternative pay schedule. Implementation will begin in August 2009, with enrollment into the program beginning in March 2009.

Summer Hours: PJCFA requested that the Board respond specifically to the FA’s proposal to increase summer office hours for teaching faculty by 12 hours per semester and for library and counseling faculty by 6 hours per semester. PJCFA’s position is that 2 office hours/week is inadequate to handle the student and grading workload. The BOT rejected this proposal.

Midterm Grades: After opening convocation, PJCFA President Sweeney wrote a letter to Dr. Meadows stating that we find this new task a violation of the CBA and demanding that the administration bring language on midterm grades to the bargaining table. The BOT and Dr. Meadows have refused to bargain this issue, so PJCFA will be filing a grievance and an Unfair Labor Practices suit against the College over it.

Health Insurance: PJCFA announced that it will be bargaining health insurance during next year’s bargaining cycle. Any concerns or suggestions PJCFA members have about this issue are welcome!

Intellectual Property Rights: PJCFA and the BOT have signed a Letter of Agreement concerning a process by which faculty and administration will form a white-paper committee to hammer out language acceptable to both parties. Under terms of the LOA, the committee will begin meeting in December and finish in April, with conclusions to be presented during the next bargaining cycle.

Salary Plan: At the October 9 meeting, PJCFA iterated its understanding of the tight budget for this year. However, PJCFA reiterated that the College has an almost 20 year history of refusing to honor its pledge to move faculty salaries into the top 20% in the state, yet has managed to squirrel away a 9.8% fund balance and fund a golden parachute retirement plan for senior administrators. PJCFA emphasized that the FA’s goal is to get a 3 to 6-year plan in place to move faculty salaries in line with the 20% goal.

The BOT said it would further examine the Association’s concerns. At the October 25 meeting, the Board representative stated that he had hoped to have a proposal regarding Article 15.01C (Base Salaries) for the meeting but had not received all the information. He promised to present this information during the next meeting, November 6.


The next (I’m afraid to say final because that appears to jinx the process) bargaining session is Thursday, November 6, at 1:30 in Room 416. It should be interesting as Dr. Samuels has indicated that the Board will present something on salaries.

We would love to pack the house. Please drop by if you can!
Paige Anderson, Chief Negotiator

Mid-term Grades

As October 20 - mid-term - draws closer, faculty have begun asking me, "What do I do about mid-term grades?" The short and simple answer is that we all will comply. Failure to comply could be viewed as gross insubordination and place the faculty within the parameters of Article 17.03(B)(3) - Disciplinary Action.

This does not mean that nothing will be done. The Administration has recently indicated its willingness to meet with PJCFA to discuss any impact identified and resulting from the mid-term grading process. PJCFA has already drafted grievance and ULP (unfair labor practice) documents to be filed should that step become necessary. Of course, PJCFA prefers that an acceptable resolution be reached through discussion at the bargaining table.

Which segues nicely to a plug for a reminder about bargaining on Thursday, October 9 at 1:30pm in Room 416. Paige Anderson spoke in the Bargaining Update about how much the team appreciates those who have taken the time to attend the bargaining sessions. It's the truth. Until you've sat in that bargaining chair, there's no way to understand how important that support is. Please come if you can and show your support. Thanks!

Bargaining Update: September 25, 2008, session

Bargaining Update: September 25, 2008, session


The Bargaining Team wants to thank the members who have shown up at the last two negotiations for their support. Having other faculty members in the room to witness what the Board’s representative has to say really puts pressure on the Board to act responsibly and negotiate in good faith.

That being said, however, there was little movement on any substantive issues during the session.

Article 9: Other Professional Activities. After reviewing PJCFA’s proposal to cease scheduling OPA hours, Keith Samuels, the Board’s Chief Negotiator, rejected it in principle although he did offer one consolation prize: that those who teach primarily online classes would be able to serve some of their OPA time off campus. Since the CBA already allows ALL faculty members to serve some or all of their OPA off campus, this concession is meaningless.

Article 11: Administrative Evaluation of Faculty. PJCFA responded to the Board’s proposal which would mandate that all faculty members prepare and maintain a portfolio and that the portfolio be required for each faculty member’s annual evaluation. PJCFA will not support any language which mandates the production of such a portfolio for all faculty or which requires that a portfolio be the basis of the annual evaluation. In addition, PJCFA asserts that some department managers are out of compliance with the current requirement to perform annual classroom evaluations of faculty members, endangering affected faculty members’ chances of promotion as those evaluations are required portions of the portfolio.

Article 15: Salaries. The Board still declines to make any alternate salary proposal or to consider increases to overload, promotion, or educational incentive pay. However, it has asked that we continue negotiating over the extended payroll option. This method would allow faculty to divide their annual base salary over the 26 bi-weekly college payroll dates so as to ease our budgeting for summer. Both sides agreed to work on the language for this section of Article 15.

Article 6: Intellectual Property Rights. The Board proposed that a white-paper committee be delegated to compose language mutually agreeable to the Board and PJCFA on this issue. PJCFA has declined to participate in such a committee since the white-paper committee from the previous bargaining year (concerning distance learning) has yet to present any decisions. Dr. Samuels agreed to check on the progress of this previous committee and revisit this topic later.

Article 6: Student Rights. In an earlier session, the Board proposed language which safeguarded students’ rights to meet with faculty to discuss materials used for evaluation purposes. PJCFA asserts that student rights are not covered under the CBA, a contract between the Board and the faculty covering wages, benefits, and working conditions of faculty, not students. PJCFA suggested that such language would be appropriate in the Student Handbook. Dr. Samuels concurred.


The next bargaining meeting will be held October 9, 2008, at 1:30 in Room 416. We would love to see the room overflow, so feel free to show up and support your union!

If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please contact Paige Anderson, Chief Negotiator (ext. 2167), or Charlotte Sweeney, PJCFA President (ext. 2007).