San Mateo County community colleges approve new contract

Before the Board of Trustees vote though, Marianne Kaletzky, AFT Local 1493’s executive director, raised strong concerns about the time it took to develop the contract — about 18 months, 16 of which faculty were without a contract. 

Kaletzky accused the district of stonewalling the union’s negotiating team, particularly near the end of negotiations, and refusing to respond to requests to meet in a timely manner. At the same time, Kaletzky asserted district leadership believed it was the union that sought to drag out negotiations. 

“I can assure you I have never met a member of our negotiating team who wants negotiations to take longer. In fact, we have been proactive in getting our proposals to you well before the previous contract expired and requesting negotiating dates and in making reasonable movements on our initial proposal where it was possible,” Kaletzky said during the Wednesday meeting. “We as AFT want to collaborate with you to settle our next contract in a timely manner, one that doesn’t require faculty to wait more than a year for raises they won’t get back interest on even as they face mounting interest each month on credit card debt and student loans.” 

Board Vice President John Pimentel acknowledged the union’s concerns, noting the board was regularly updated on the process. He shared Kaletzky’s hope that the district and union would rebuild its relationship and develop a more agreeable negotiation process for the future. 

“We were very aware of the process and it was very painful for us too so I would very much like to reestablish the relationship in a way that’s much more collaborative,” Pimentel said. “What it really comes down to is simple communication and scheduling and I think we could have had a much better process and I hope management will hear the board’s sincere recommendation that we have a different and better process in future negotiations so we don’t have these prolonged processes drag out to no fault of one side or another.” 

The final details of the contract include a 7% raise for the 2022-23 school year, 5% for 2023-24 and 3% for 2024-25 for all faculty except instructional part-timers. Part-time instructors will get a 9.5% raise for the 2022-23 school year, 7.5% for 2023-24 and 5.5% for 2024-25. 

Negotiations around a larger pay increase in the third year will open for both groups if the county’s property tax revenue increases above 6% this year. Salary increases will also be applied retroactively, starting July 1, 2022. 

The district also agreed to increase its contribution toward health care premiums and to increase health care reimbursements for part-timers as well. Among a series of changes to existing contract stipulations, the district and union also agreed to add new language outlining a process for full-time faculty to submit preferences for assignments, schedule, modality and location. The agreement also prohibits a dean from disregarding specified preferences and to provide a reason for why a request was denied. 

Additional new languages also outline disability accommodations. Both parties agreed administrators will meet with faculty members seeking reasonable accommodations and union representatives and will inform faculty and representatives in writing of resolutions to their requests.  

“Our members have ratified it and we’re very glad we’re finally looking ahead to raises, increases in benefits and fairer working conditions,” Kaletzky said. “Faculty are here just like you are to put students first. But to paraphrase a slogan from the recent Portland teachers strike, which went on for three weeks, you can’t put students first if you put faculty last.” 

sierra@smdailyjournal.com 

(650) 344-5200 ext. 106