Negotiations Update #1 (17 Nov 2017)
The Union negotiations team met with the District for the first time this semester on Friday, Nov 17. So far, everything is off to a good start. The union negotiations team is optimistic the new contract can be completed by the end of the spring semester of 2018.
For this academic year, to ensure that the bargaining process moves along in a smooth and timely fashion, both the union and district teams reviewed some ground rules. Two such provisions the teams established included allowing union guests to speak at negotiations meetings and that proposed articles are addressed by both parties within ten business days (unless both parties mutually agree to extend that time).
On Friday, the union negotiations team presented their first line of items to the District—one of which included a new and hefty contract article on faculty assignments. This article addresses how many hours faculty work, how faculty are assigned to classes, and how overload might be used to balance workload from one semester to another (i.e. load banking), among other assignment aspects. The article also includes a section on Distance Education (DE) with definitions, procedures and possible compensation, among other DE items.
The District also offered some of their items. They proposed to move the language from a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding summer office hours for those teaching in Adult Education to the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA). They also offered some language to clarify the part-time evaluation process.
Both sides are prepared to bring further proposals to the next negotiations meeting, which will take place on Friday, Dec 1. For this meeting, the union team invited coaches, counselors and librarians to speak to the District about their working experiences and responsibilities and how they differ from the working experiences and responsibilities of faculty who primarily have teaching assignments.
The district team has a different composition this year. Noteworthy is the absence of legal counsel from their side of the table. The union negotiations team is taking this as a good sign.
Below you will find the composition of each negotiations team.
District Team:
Dr. Adriana Flores-Church (Lead Negotiator, Vice President of Human Resources)
Rick Miranda (Vice President of Academic Affairs)
Nancy Buvinger (Director of Human Resources)
Felipe Lopez (Vice President of Business Services)
Patricia Robins-Smith (Director of Community Education)
Connie Boardman (Dean of Science, Engineering and Mathematics)
Cerritos College Faculty Federation (CCFF) Team:
Kimberly Rosenfeld (Lead Negotiator, FT Union Vice President, Speech)
Stephanie Rosenblatt (Union President, Library)
Bobbi-Lee Smart (Union Part-Time Vice President, Sociology)
George Jarrett (Union Secretary, History)
Jay Elarcosa (Business, Part-Time)
Amy Holzgang (Sociology, Full-Time)
Please be assured that the goal of the CCFF’s negotiations team is to establish clear contract language that will better protect faculty from arbitrary abuse of power and that will also help reduce the number of grievances between faculty and the District.
Because our current contract will expire at the end of June 2018, both the CCFF and the District are committed to completing negotiations by the end of the Spring semester of 2018.
If you have any questions regarding negotiations, please contact CCFF’s Lead Negotiator and FT Vice President, Kimberly Rosenfeld at krosenfeld@cerritos.edu.