Negotiations Update

By Debora Bone, CCFT President, and the negotiations team (5/12/2014)

Today CCFT Council met to discuss a proposal from the District that was the result of the negotiations sessions we have had since April. The Council has asked the negotiations team to go back to the bargaining table.

This round of negotiations has been primarily to address the reopener for Salary, as well as a few smaller reopeners that were agreed upon in the contract that began in July 2014. See Article 26 for list of reopeners. Some have been deferred to fall 2014.

As most of you know, the compensation agreement for 2013-14 included several components. The total package was a 4% increase, using both ongoing and onetime funds. OF the ongoing money, 0.47% went to the increased cost of health benefits and 1.1% went to an ongoing salary increase for all faculty.

In addition, a 2.43% increase was funded with one-time money. This was for the equivalent of 0.8% raise, used to increase Adjunct Salary Schedule Pro Rata from 63% to 64.5% and a 1.63% salary increase for all faculty.

For 2014-15, a CCFT priority is to maintain the 2.43% raise, with ongoing or onetime funds. We have also agreed to maintain all of the same health benefits plans and agreements next year, which includes the previously negotiated 50/50 split on share of cost for annual benefits increases. This amount will come from the state budget's proposed COLA of 0.85%.

The District has expressed continued concern that the drop in enrollment for 2013-14 may lead to permanent loss of funding if we are unable to reach the cap of 10,894 FTES in 2014-15. We are not expected to meet this cap in 2013-14 so will be in stability funding this year. Efforts to increase enrollment next year are underway. Faculty are asking to be included in the college-wide strategizing to increase enrollment.

The District has asked CCFT to look at changing some faculty workload provisions as a way to increase "efficiency." The Workload Article is not a reopener and faculty feel strongly that in recent years, everyone's workload has already increased significantly for a variety of reasons, including addition of SLO processes, decreased number of full time faculty and classified staff, increased demands of meeting the requirements of the student success act, among a few. Faculty feel strongly that workload needs to be looked at broadly, not piecemeal and that a high priority is to protect the quality of education offered at Cabrillo.

The timing of negotiations has been problematic this year, with the early graduation date. Our last Council meeting, today, is before the governor's May Revise and before the State budget. CCFT will go back into negotiations over summer, pending scheduling challenges with the teams. We are hopeful that the final state budget in June may provide additional resources for the negotiations process. We will continue with the Interest Based Bargaining process to address shared interests with the District. Please direct any comments or concerns to your CCFT representatives.

If an agreement is not reached before fall, the District may revert faculty salaries to the onetime component of the 2013-14 agreement, see above. It is of course possible to negotiate a retroactive agreement in the fall. Negotiations is a process that involves values clarification, compromise and perseverance!

Stay tuned!

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