The part-time faculty association at Allan Hancock College filed paperwork with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) on Dec. 2 requesting the declaration of an impasse for contract negotiations between the association and the college district.
Mark Miller, the association’s president and a part-time literature teacher, said the association was also planning to show up en masse at the next board of trustees meeting, Dec. 9 at 6 p.m. Miller said the two groups have been negotiating the terms of the contract since January and haven’t made any headway.
The sticking points for the association include the district wanting the part-time faculty to accept California’s cost of living adjustment every year, rather than negotiating pay increases. In 2013, the association received a 4 percent increase and is proposing the same for this year. Miller said the state’s cost of living adjustment was only a 0.85 percent increase for this year, and what it will be in the future is unknown.
“Instead of being able to bargain, we would be stuck with what the state offers,” Miller said.
He added that other un-negotiable items include prorating pay and hours for part-time faculty so it’s similar to how the district pays full-time faculty. For instance, a full-time professor has one office hour for one class, whereas a part-time professor has one office hour for two classes, and part-time counselors get paid approximately 35 to 40 percent less per hour than full-time counselors, according to Miller.
He called the way things are now a “gross injustice” and said it’s something that should be “recognized and rectified” by the district. At this point, the association hasn’t heard anything back from PERB on the status of its request.
College President Kevin Walthers is leading negotiations for the district and said he was surprised to hear that the association filed for an impasse declaration. Walthers said he last met informally with association representatives on Dec. 2, and thought everyone had left the meeting with a framework to move forward with.
“Everybody stood up, shook hands … and they decide they would declare an impasse anyway,” Walthers said. “I don’t understand.”
His office received a notice from PERB on Dec. 8 about the association’s impasse request. Other than that, Walthers said he hasn’t received anything in writing from the association.
Walthers said he couldn’t respond to any specific questions about the negotiations or where the district stood.
“The ground rules that we agreed to said we wouldn’t negotiate this in public,” he said. “At this point, we haven’t had a chance to respond.”
This article appears in Dec 11-18, 2014.