Union Update – Oct 16

At the last Board of Trustees meeting over 50 of us packed the room to support our colleagues who spoke about how much their families rely on their current health insurance and on the need for access to health insurance for every person who teaches here.  We also emphasized the fact that the purpose of state-allocated COLA is to protect the purchasing power of state-funded institutions and to partially mitigate the impact of inflation on the employees working at those institutions.  (You know: US.)

We all know that COLA alone is not enough.  According to the Consumer Price Index,  in just the last year prices in Los Angeles County have increased 3.9% and housing costs alone have increased 5.3%.

COLA alone also isn’t enough to ensure that our colleges can hire and retain quality instructors and provide a 21st Century education to our students.  It can’t guarantee that colleges can begin to rectify the inequities between full and part-time faculty or equalize the access students get to each class of instructor.

But the next three years will be excellent budgetary years for community colleges.  Our budget will increase by almost 15%  under the new funding formula. In addition, the state has budgeted an extra $50 million a year in ongoing funding to support the hiring of  full-time faculty and an additional one-time allocation of $50 million to partially reimburse the cost of part-time office hours.  Even the District’s historically conservative estimates show a $6 million surplus at the end of 2018-2019.

If we really want to reform the way we do things around here to make Cerritos College a truly excellent place to work and a truly exceptional place for our students to learn then we need to make those changes now.

Come out tomorrow and show the trustees and our administration that Cerritos College faculty are proud of the work we do here at the college and will not be satisfied until we have a full, fair contract that helps us create a college and a community that respects the contributions of everyone who works here.

Let us know we can count on you by using this form.

 In Unity,

Stephanie Rosenblatt

CCFF President