May 23, 2012 negotiations update
Brief negotiations update
No unilateral action
The AFT and District bargaining teams met on Monday, May 21. The Union team made clear that the District should cease its threat to impose an unilateral wage cut of up to 7.17% and called on them to resume bargaining in good faith towards a compensation settlement and approach to dealing with the District's budget deficit for 2012/13. We regard any such unilateral imposition of a wage cut punitive to faculty and illegal under California collective bargaining law. AFT is also delivering this message to the CCSF Board of Trustees, including at the Thursday evening, May 24 meeting, where the Board will be considering this issue in Closed Session.
No blank check
AFT bargaining team members spent hours pouring over budget information, reviewing and correcting District cost-outs, trying to obtain accurate figures regarding the deficit and budget costs. District figures have been at best a moving target, making it extremely difficult to get an accurate read of the problem, let alone determine what a "shared sacrifice" approach to solving next year's deficit would mean for faculty. Our message was clear: the Union must have accurate figures. We will not write a blank check to the District.
Negotiate in good faith
The parties will continue negotiations Thursday, May 24. AFT members and reps are understandably alarmed at the provocative behavior of District negotiators/contracted lawyers and especially their threat of unilateral action. Precinct reps and others turned out for Tuesday's AFT Delegate Assembly, voicing their frustration with the District and support for the Union negotiations team. Members made it clear they would take more militant action should the District fail to return to good faith negotiations to deal with the fiscal crisis.
May 17, 2012 negotiations update
District threatens to impose unilateral salary cuts on CCSF faculty
On Monday, May 14, 2012, after several hours of negotiations (and several months with no specific proposal), the District’s Chief Negotiator, Emily Prescott, notified AFT 2121 that the District is considering unilaterally imposing a cut to faculty salaries of up to 7.18%, effective June 15, 2012.
Needless to say, we are outraged by this attack on faculty rights and the negotiations process. AFT is reviewing whether the District’s precipitous actions are illegal and a violation of the contract, so as to pursue all available remedies to defend the contract and our collective bargaining rights. This includes the question of good faith bargaining prior to imposing a wage cut.
Following repeated failures by the District to provide budget and cost-out information essential to the negotiations process, AFT again refused to agree to unspecified concessions amounting to a blank check from faculty to the District. Negotiators once again presented a series of tentative CCSF budget projections for next year with a variety of inflated costs. (See last week's negotiations update.) Even at this late date, the District is failing to provide meaningful budget information and accurate projection of faculty costs, yet when we ask for accurate figures they respond with threats of a unilateral pay cut.
In recognition of the difficult bargaining situation and how little has been accomplished, AFT 2121 proposed a six-month contract extension to allow the parties to continue to move toward agreement while monitoring savings from cuts in faculty assignments this academic year and in the fall, and looking closely at the impact of the Governor’s proposed “May Revise” and eventual adopted state budget for 2012/13, expected in June. The District has rejected this outright.
Further, the District continues to reject AFT proposals to negotiate over health premium increases slated for July 1, 2012, despite our presenting detailed cost-out information showing that employer premiums are rising 2.7% while employee rates are going up 11.3%.
The District’s contracted legal counsel, Renne, Sloan, Holtzman, Sakai, LLP, appears to have taken control of all labor relations at City College. The Director of Employee Relations has been absent this semester, and for several weeks, AFT sat at the bargaining table with one of the District’s attorneys—but no District employee! Having an attorney on contract act as Chief Negotiator for the District is unprecedented and, in our view, unjustified. When AFT represents faculty in grievances, two attorneys are present—but again, no one from District Administration. Currently, we are aware of up to four attorneys from this one firm who are working in the District.
As further evidence, last week Interim Chancellor Pam Fisher was unwilling to meet with AFT without one of the attorneys present. There has been a longstanding practice of AFT 2121 meeting with the Chancellor and top-level administrators on a monthly basis to discuss issues of mutual concern, always without attorneys present.
AFT is demanding a full accounting of the hundreds of hours of legal fees spent by the District this year, all largely unbudgeted in a year in which the budget has been the essential question. Attorneys should not be encumbering employee relations and driving up administration costs at any time, but most especially during this extreme financial crisis.
In this latest negotiations development, the District is invoking the “trombone clause” in Article 21, whereby faculty are guaranteed their fair share of new revenues. The flip side is that if revenues decline, so can faculty compensation. Of course, faculty compensation has already declined in recent years through the loss of assignments, wage give-backs, lost steps, and increased hikes in healthcare premiums, all of which has saved the District millions of dollars. In fact, as the District is fully aware, the faculty’s proportionate share of the CCSF salary/benefit “pie” has declined to about 64% which amounts to a loss or underpayment to faculty of roughly $3 million annually.
The District is invoking the “trombone clause” based on the $11.9 million in lost revenue from 2011/12 despite faculty having already negotiated and addressed lost revenue for the year with the March 12, 2012 agreement ratified by faculty and the Board.
AFT 2121 acknowledges the troubling economic times and the tremendous difficulties of the current budget crisis. We all have an interest in the District's fiscal stability. Faculty have made tremendous sacrifices in wages and working conditions. However, we refuse to simply write the District a blank check based on inaccurate numbers. Instead, the District is moving precipitously, proposing to slash salaries without sufficient analysis of costs or appropriate consultation. Negotiations for next year must be based on timely, accurate information relating to the following: the Governor’s May Revise, this year’s state budget as passed by the state Legislature in June, savings captured from cuts already implemented or underway, and possible new revenues with passage of ballot measures in November 2012.
May 11, 2012 negotiations update
Negotiations Stalled, No New Contract
Wth the semester virtually over and without having presented a concrete proposal, the District has asked to schedule extra bargaining sessions with the AFT 2121 negotiations team in order to reach some kind of accord before our contract expires with the District on June 30, 2012.
As reported earlier, significant time at the table this semester was spent dealing with the impact of the “February Surprise” fiscal crisis, leading to an agreement by the various College constituencies to realize savings through work furloughs, temporary wage givebacks, and other measures to get through this year.
Little specific time, however, has been spent on negotiations for next year or for overall openers for the AFT-SFCCD three-year contract, in large part because the District has brought no specific proposals to the table.
District refusing to address hikes in employee health premiums
AFT took up in earnest the issue of increases in HSS health care premiums coming down the pike in July, 2012. We have pushed at the bargaining table for greater contributions from the District to offset these increases because they fall disproportionately on CCSF employees.
Despite having built additional health costs into its CCSF budget projections for next year, the District has so far refused to offer any relief to employees. Timely response to this matter would have enabled faculty to make informed choices during the Open Enrollment period,
As previously reported, Budget projections for next year continue to indicate a large unresolved deficit. The District insists that faculty, along with other College constituencies, must commit to resolving this deficit in advance if we expect to get any help on health premium hikes. But with the District unable to make accurate projections on costs or budget overall, and with no specific proposal on the table, AFT can only conclude that the District is stalling and holding hostage what for the District is a relatively small and already budgeted amount for health care premiums.
For more on health premium increases and for an overview of timing on the state budget/revenue picture, click here for page 3 of the May issue of Union Action.
What is wrong with this picture?
It is one thing not to know about the revenue. It's another not to know about the costs. The state budget is an ambiguous, moving target, and there is much we will not know about funding until the Legislature approves a budget in the summer—and even more we will not know until after November's elections.
The District has failed to provide meaningful cost information on key issues in negotiations. AFT has provided precise, detailed information projecting the cost of our health premium proposal. A month later, the District has instead responded with claims of a much higher cost figure—more than double that of AFT’s cost-out, but no detail of how it arrived at its figure.
The District continues to attribute cost to salary step advancement that grossly overstates the actual cost. AFT has repeatedly demonstrated to the District that there is little cost for faculty salary step advancement—and even a savings in some years—in comparing the average salary step of the faculty from one year to the next. This is because hundreds of full-time faculty congregate at the highest step, Step 16, and many of these individual retire each year, driving down the average salary step of the faculty.
Additionally, the District has been unable to project actual faculty costs for next year with the planned reductions in the instructional program and other services, which amount to a huge sacrifice from faculty in lost assignments and a closing off of educational access for students. It follows that the District cannot propose with any precision what it expects from the Union to address next year’s deficit. Essentially, we are being asked to sign what amounts to a blank check from faculty, which is simply unacceptable.
Where We Stand
Faced with this lack of progress towards an agreement and ongoing problems related to the District managing of its costs, the AFT Executive Board has resolved the following regarding negotiations:
Union leadership election results
Election results announced by Wendy Miller, AFT 2121 Election Committee, on 5/11/2012:
Thank you for all who participated in AFT 2121 elections. There were 368 valid ballots and 4 disqualified. Ballots for officers, Executive Board Reps, and Labor Council Delegates have been counted. Votes for precinct reps will be counted and announced next week. AFT 2121 elected representatives begin their 2012-2014 term of office effective June 1, 2012.
President: |
Labor Council Delegates AFT Convention Delegates**
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* The candidate receiving the most votes for Labor Council serves as secretary of the delegation and as a member of the Executive Board. Because this makes Allan Fisher a de facto member of our Executive Board, the Election Committee moved to include the next ranking candidate, Michael Estrada, on the Executive Board. ** The top 6 vote-getters will be funded for travel to the convention. |
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May 1 email message
Faculty face new challenges as fall assignments arrive
With layoffs looming, we need you to help us help you. We need you to keep the Union informed. Please read the following and report back to us if any of it applies to you—and pass it along, too.
Many—though not all—faculty have received news of their fall assignments in the last week. With a 12 percent cutback in noncredit offerings, an 8.5 percent cutback in credit offerings, and 10 percent in other areas for the fall, these are without a doubt the most drastic cutbacks in schedule the college has seen. Many chairs and others with assignment responsibilities have, we are aware, been working hard to make this painful process clear and even-handed. Attrition and reducing extra pay assignments will help the District accomplish most of these reductions, but some part-timers are not receiving assignments for classes in the fall, and some full-timers may be facing impossible schedules in which none of their preferences have been honored. We are working to protect as many jobs (and preferences) as we can, and part-timers need to arm themselves with knowledge of the seniority system so as not to be inadvertently or wrongfully cut.
Here are some points to remember about your re-employment rights:
This coming fall will be very stressful to all. You can reduce that stress by being clear about your rights now so that you don’t wake up August 15 with no class or an impossible schedule, asking to file a grievance when it is too late.
Have you been cut? Please keep us informed:
If you who receive notice that your hours have been cut or that you have been laid-off for the fall semester, or if you have been handed an impossible schedule, we need to hear from you. You are our source for on-the-ground information. The best way to communicate this critical information to the Union is to email us at aft@aft2121.org and answer the following questions as best you can:
Faculty already have made huge sacrifices to help the District through the continuing fiscal crisis; the whole college has made incredible sacrifices, and we must work to stop the cuts that are crushing California public education and social services—and throwing our colleagues out of good work for students who deserve access to their educations. These cuts are not of our making, and we must bring in new revenues, both locally and statewide, if we are to turn these tides. Let us know that you want to get involved in revenue campaigns by contacting Galina Gerasimova at getactive@aft2121.org.
Got more to tell us? Please use this survey.
April 4, 2012 negotiations update
Health Service System open enrollment publishes incorrect rates
New premiums: Sticker shock for City College faculty
If you have medical coverage through City College of San Francisco, you probably already got your informational packets about April Open Enrollment, covering the period of July 1 through December, 31, 2012. The health premiums published by HSS in these packets represent significant increases - in the neighborhood of 10 percent to 20 percent for employees with dependents. These rates are incorrect, failing to take into account a 3.8 percent increase in Employer premiums mandated by the S.F. City Charter. Once corrected, they should be about $10 less in employee semi-monthly rates. For example, instead of what might have been a $262 per employee semi-monthly Employer premium per employee, the rate chart reflects the old (current) $252 semi-monthly premium paid by CCSF.
AFT 2121 and District at bargaining table over employee premiums
These HSS premiums are subject to collective bargaining, and we met with the District on Monday to negotiate over the District's contribution for faculty healthcare. In addition to the Employer contribution mandated by the City Charter, our contract provides for additional subsidies by the District for faculty health coverage.
Given the modest 3.8 percent increase in Employer premiums mandated by HSS, we expected the District to increase the current contractual subsidy to more equitably share the burden of rate hikes from the health insurance companies. (In fact, a larger increase than this has already been budgeted in next year's dire budget projections.) In recent years, this has been the approach taken by the parties at the bargaining table.
However, now the District has a markedly different approach. In response to our demand to equitably share in the increased costs as has been done in previous years, the District is seeking to tie these negotiations to those over next year's looming budget deficit at CCSF. This means linking the current talks over health premiums to those over wages for next year, e.g. an upfront commitment to reduce wages in the event that the District is not able to close next year's budget deficit.
AFT 2121 is pushing to negotiate rates lower than the published rates, including more equitable District subsidies. By trying to tie these negotiations to wage concessions, the District will only delay matters and prevent faculty from making informed choices based on accurate rates. This means we aren’t optimistic about concluding negotiations over health care premiums before Open Enrollment closes at the end of April. However, at a minimum, as explained earlier, expect to pay approximately $10 less semi-monthly than the published rates.
Transition from fiscal year to calendar year at HSS
The HSS packet you received reflects a one-time, six-month period of coverage (through December, 2012) because HSS is transitioning from a fiscal year to a calendar year. To make this conversion, another Open Enrollment period will occur this October, 2012, which will be for the calendar year January 1 through December 31, 2012.
One of HSS' reasons for the transition to a calendar year was a claimed expectation of negotiating better rates. While we don’t know what rate changes are coming in the fall, we expect this shift to complicate negotiations in future budget years, but especially this year.
Official results of faculty ratification vote
Official results of faculty ratification vote: Faculty approve 2011/12 Tentative Agreement
All ballots have been received back from voting sites to the AFT office and counted under the direction of Election Chair Wendy Miller, who reports these final results:
The District is working immediately to implement pay deductions beginning next pay day, March 27, 2012. The moratorium on further class cancellations (with the exception of low enrolled short-term classes) and the planned 50% reduction in assignments of part-time counselors now continues through this semester.
We wish to thank members of the AFT bargaining team, who worked effectively to minimize the temporary across-the-board wage cut by pushing the District to fully acknowledge the cost savings realized from the sacrifices made by faculty who suffered cuts in assignments this year. We also wish to acknowledge the work of long-time CFT leader, Marty Hittelman, for his invaluable help in analyzing the CCSF budget and helping us determine more accurate forecasts of District revenue and expenses, and to desconstruct the District's fund balance and reserves. And thank you to the many 2121 Precinct Reps, Executive Board members, and volunteers who helped make this ratification vote and vote count possible on a very short timeline.
We will now turn our attention to the formidable fiscal problem facing us all next year. We will work to provide analysis of the budget and cuts being considered by the administration to programs and negotiate over their impact on faculty. We seek full discussion of these critical issues through site meetings, union meetings, and other forums this semester.
We will also continue to collect feedback through the survey and provide information by updating the Frequently Asked Questions.
Thank you for your continued support and engagement in these challenging times.
From e-news of February 28, 2012
Negotiations update
Over the last two work days, Feb. 25 and Feb 27, the District presented the Union with the following approach to the immediate 2011-12 fiscal crisis. This does not address next year's budget, 2012-13, described in more depth in the Union's Feb. 21 message (which also contains additional background).
District proposal regarding current year:
The estimated savings of these reductions comes to $1.2 million. To make up the additional portion of the "faculty share," for a total of $1.7 million, the District is proposing an across-the-board annual salary reduction of 0.6 percent, to start immediately.
AFT 2121 will do the following:
Brief overview of the situation:
We are confronted by dire circumstances created by an unprecedented $17 million cut in CCSF funding this year, including a surprise mid-year cut from the state that no community college district had planned on. This is by far the largest single year cut to CCSF funding in its history. On the heels of repeated other cuts over the last four years, this brings our losses to an astronomical $30 million annually.
The threat to faculty and all employees’ jobs and livelihoods, as well as to our students, could hardly be greater. The attempt by some to place blame on faculty as the cause of the problem, especially at the Feb. 23 Board of Trustees meeting, is an outrage, undermining a trust and mutual understanding carefully built over many years between employee groups, unions and management, and with the Board. These acts jeopardize our collective ability to face this crisis, and we have conveyed this to the District in the strongest terms.
How we proceed from here for the remainder of this fiscal year needs to be determined over the next several weeks. The Union will do everything it can to inform and allow for full discussion and consideration of the membership before reaching further agreement on the District’s takeback proposals.
We call on all faculty members to get involved in this process, weighing in as best you can and facing this crisis together. It is a collective crisis for all faculty and for the whole college community, and promoting divisiveness in the face of such a threat to the college and the education we provide helps the 1 percent far more than it helps any of us.
Join us in taking action to fight against these merciless cuts to CCSF, to all community colleges, and to public education. Fight with us for new revenues. Join us on March 1, on March 5, and in our campaigns for local and state initiatives to Restore California—to restore funding to the failing dream of education for all.
Have you given your feedback and ideas to your Union?
At AFT 2121, we want to hear from you! Please give us input at this survey and encourage fellow faculty to do the same so that we can have hear from as many members as possible. Several new ideas have emerged so far from the survey input, as have repeated concerns and themes. We recognize that not everyone can come to a meeting; please participate and let us know what you are thinking.
Bulletin of January 13, 2012
“Success” and funding: Keeping the community in our colleges
On January 9th, the statewide Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges approved, in total, the recommendations of the statewide Student Success Task Force. It did so over the eloquent objections of many community college faculty, and the even louder objections of students, many from CCSF, who spoke against the overly narrow vision of “success” the recommendations propose and eventually “mic checked” the meeting.
The task force is now disbanded, and we are entering a new phase of action regarding its recommendations. Legislation and proposals for implementation will move forward. AFT 2121 will help keep faculty apprised of the situation and opportunities to impact the process. At the state level, we have been involved in strategic planning regarding legislative actions, and we expect the Community College Council and the CFT to be fully engaged.
We must ensure that our community colleges continue to serve the whole of our student population and that all students, particularly our most vulnerable and underserved students, have access to the quality education that is their right. The real solution to the problems that the task force identified is sufficient funding, not rationing education for fewer students and narrowing the definition of “success.” With enough revenue to allow colleges to continue to accomplish and improve student success, the task force’s call for rationing education would have gained little traction. We can always improve, but not at the expense of serving our diverse students in all of their diverse purposes.
California’s visionary Master Plan for Higher Education recognized that quality, accessible public education was a public good. Under it, the UC system would accept the top 12.5% of students, the CSUs the top 33.3%. And the community colleges would educate the rest of California’s students who were able to benefit from education—they were truly intended to be the colleges of the people. And they still are—for the moment.
But the state has defunded public education in the last years, and the revenue crisis has led to repeated rounds of budget cuts and ever-tightening belts in our community colleges and all of higher education. The 1% has access to the world’s most elite educational institutions, but a truly democratic society must make quality public education available for the rest of us.
The cost of education has also skyrocketed, not just in the UCs and CSUs, but in the community colleges. Just 25 years ago, community colleges classes were free to all Californians. Ten years ago, they were $11 per unit, but they have now increased by 327%. Students will be forced to shoulder an additional 13% hike in 2012. And tuition fees don’t speak to the cost of living or of textbooks and other supplies; many students must work multiple jobs while trying to meet their educational goals.
Proposed “reforms” to the mission of CA’s community colleges now pose a serious threat to the education communities colleges will provide in the near future. Rather than advocating that our colleges meet the needs of the 99% by restoring the funding that’s already caused thousands of students across the state to lose access, the community college system has instead adopted a plan to “ration” the education community colleges will offer. If implemented, some of these proposals would change the face of community colleges and shut the door on many of our most vulnerable students—and not just during this time of fiscal instability, but for the long run.
We should not—cannot, in fact—acquiesce to the misplaced budget and funding priorities in California. Instead, we must reiterate that our students and our state have every right to a fully funded public education system.
2012 is the year to make that funding happen, both locally and statewide. AFT 2121 is fully committed to a San Francisco parcel tax to support -- and save -- the college and to CFT’s statewide Millionaires Tax that would bring $13 million back to CCSF and restore funding educational and other services without asking any more of the 99%.
Millionaires Tax would begin restoration
Following extensive research, the California Federation of Teachers and others have filed the “Millionaires Tax to Restore Funding for Education and Essential Services Act of 2012” with the Attorney General’s office. This ballot measure would increase tax rates on personal income in excess of one million dollars per year to provide desperately needed revenues to rebuild our schools and services.
The Millionaires Tax Act will ask people to pay additional income tax as follows:
(1) At the rate of 3% on that portion of a taxpayer’s taxable income in excess of one million dollars ($1,000,000), but not over two million dollars ($2,000,000).
(2) At the rate of 5% on that portion of a taxpayer’s taxable income in excess of two million dollars ($2,000,000).
The Millionaires Tax would raise an estimated $6 billion per year for schools (early childhood, K-12, and all three sectors of higher education), services for seniors, children, the disabled, public safety, and rebuilding roads and bridges.
The measure is extremely popular: our polling shows this initiative by far has the best chance with the electorate because the voting public wants to restore education and services, and it wants to get there without asking the 99% to sacrifice any more.
The Millionaires Tax will not solve all the state’s problems, but it’s an important start, and key to its success is that it gets the money from the people who have it and can easily afford to pay their fair share.
Ask AFT 2121 how you can support the Millionaires Tax of 2012!
Visit the website: millionairestaxca.com
Budget woes continue: State underfunding and administrative missteps
CCSF continues to struggle to balance its fiscal year 2011/12 budget after the “trigger 2” cuts in State funding were confirmed by the Governor as necessary to offset anemic State revenues. With the additional “trigger 2” cut to the CCSF budget, the total loss in State funding to CCSF for 2011/12 now tops $13 million.
AFT continues to advocate to scale back program offerings as necessary through attrition rather than layoffs. By not replacing all faculty who leave the District from year to year, unstaffed hours can be used to contract. This approach requires taking the medium and long term view in making shifts in scheduling and program changes. It avoids precipitous cuts that devastate both students and employees.
Though state trigger cuts were expected, a number of new challenges have developed. Last Fall’s program was simply rolled over and even expanded from the previous year, 2010/11, which had represented an all-time high in CCSF student enrollment. This error in planning and execution represents one of several administrative missteps over the past six months. Despite a clear budget plan, the District has so far failed to realize savings it needed to close this year’s deficit, leading to additional cuts to the Spring and Summer 2012 program. Where additional cuts were needed, these were supposed to include assignments to retired faculty, new part-time hires, and overloads, and not to cut full-time base or part-time modal loads.
Unfortunately, just before the semester break in December, administration decided to deal with the budget deficit by taking an axe to courses that were already scheduled and enrolled for the Spring. In a move that can only be described as panicky and misguided, dozens of classes, many highly enrolled, were cut despite protests from AFT 2121 and others. The Chancellor has acknowledged that last-minute precipitous cuts to the class schedule are hurtful to students and faculty and must be avoided.
AFT 2121 will continue to monitor the CCSF and State budgets closely and advocate against the meat-axe approach to reducing expenditures.
It is in this context that AFT 2121’s bargaining team resumes negotiations towards a new three-year AFT/District contract by July 1, 2012. Restoration of the lost salary step from 2009/10 remains the compensation priority, and there are many other issues on the team’s agenda, including healthcare costs. The Union will report back to faculty as these negotiations unfold.
Flex day obligations for Jan. 12, 13 and beyond
Despite AFT’s efforts at the bargaining table this last fall to clarify and update faculty flex day obligations, the District has persisted in sending out confusing language on flex forms. We offer the following clarifications:
AFT can help clarify or advise you regarding your flex day requirements.