We had another productive meeting with the District this afternoon and were able to TA* on three articles of the 2022-25 CBA and sign two MOUs*.
Article 8 (Course Maximums)- TAed
Our proposal and counterproposals made several attempts to create a more logical system for determining course minimums—a priority we’ve tried to get through in the past 5 years or more of negotiations. While we were unable to reach an agreement with the District on the need to revise the course minimums required to avoid cancellation beyond one clarification for classes with caps below 20, we were able to make some language changes that provide a bit more clarity, and update the process to revise class caps. The outcome on this article did not result in the gains we hoped for, but we did engage in an important conversation with the District and were able to highlight the faculty’s position on the need for the protection of our smaller programs and the cumulatively harmful effects of repeated District focus on efficiency, enrollment numbers, and money.
Article 27 (Resignations)- TAed NEW ARTICLE
The creation and agreement on this new article is a good example of the collaborative and responsive negotiations relationship we are currently enjoying with the District team. A conversation about faculty resignations in the past month led to a mutual agreement to create a new article focusing on the guidelines for when faculty can rescind resignations, bringing our CBA in line with Board Policy.
Appendix L (Early Childhood Education Lab School)- TAed
The District accepted all of our proposals for changes to Appendix L, which included streamlining and cleaning up language, removing duplicate content, and increasing the amount of extra duty time off available to the ECELS admin team.
MOUs
We signed an MOU to provide reassigned time for an NSF grant and an MOU to update previously negotiated class caps to take effect Summer 2023.
We presented faculty feedback and suggestions for helping encourage faculty to return to campus (proposed in the District's Article 4: Workload & Calendar proposal). We wanted to engage in this conversation before presenting our counterproposal as a form of interest-based bargaining—working from understanding our shared goals and finding common ground for solutions. We had a productive conversation with the District that helped us feel optimistic about a resolution on this Article soon.
Discussion also occurred about Article 17: Evaluations (we expect the District’s counterproposal at our next meeting), the way full-time temporary positions are created/approved, and logistics about moving forward with negotiations on Article 20 (Working Conditions) and Article 15 (Compensation). We will likely sunshine our reopeners for the 2023/24 contract year immediately after completing negotiations this round on the full 3-year contract.
Glossary
CBA: collective bargaining agreement—i.e., “The Contract”
MOU: memorandum of understanding—i.e., an agreement outside of typical contract negotiations
TA: tentatively agree—i.e., sign off on