By Lauren Blanchard.
We will have an MPCTA membership meeting on Friday October 19 at 12:30 in the Karas Room to discuss the counter-proposal MPCTA received yesterday. The District has asked MPCTA to respond by 10am on October 24 (presumably because of the Board meeting).
As you may recall, at the beginning of September, I inquired with Jon Knolle about an MOU to ensure all faculty were receiving full retirement benefits (because faculty working an extended workyear have been impacted by the results of a CalSTRS audit and are not receiving full retirement benefits for the extra days they work). The District responded with a proposal to settle the contract. I believe they responded this way because they have seen the growing membership of MPCTA and activism in the upcoming Board races. MPCTA responded with a counter-proposal, seeking workload protections for Counseling faculty and better working conditions for our part-time faculty.
The Monterey Peninsula Community College District has replied with a counter- proposal, for our consideration. I am attaching the counter-proposal, which includes the Districts edits (which is why there are strikethroughs). This counter-proposal includes the following provisions:
- The contract would expire in June 2019 (but would be enforced afterwards as the current contract has been)
- Article 4: The contract would allow MPCTA access to bulletin board in existing buildings
- Article 6: The contract would slightly alter and streamline the grievance timelines
- Article 8: The contract would bring our language into conformity with state and federal laws, and would change the method of reporting sick leave so that faculty did not need to report 1 day of leave, if only one hour of class was missed due to illness
- Article 9: The contract would implement minor changes to the prescription drug benefit and annual maximum, once MPCSEA also agrees to these changes
- Article 11: The contract would ensure that the retirements of counselors, who work an extended workyear, are restored. This language is based on language from Hartnell, which has passed a CalSTRS audit during the last year. Faculty who work an extended workyear would also be paid at a day rate of 1/175, rather than a reduced weekly rate (as under current contract language)
- Article 14: The contract would redraft the self-evaluation language to include participation in assessments required by the ACCJC
- Article 16: The contract would include a 1% salary increase for full time faculty (with retro to July 1, 2017) and a 4% salary increase for part time faculty (with retro to July 1, 2017). The salary proposal would also compress the full time faculty schedule by removing all frozen salary steps. It would take 17 years to move from step 1 to step 17
- Article 20: The contract would provide that part time faculty would be paid for ALL hours that they are in the classroom, including the final exam period. It would also provide re-employment rights to part-time faculty, in compliance with a state mandate.
- Article 24: The contract would require the District to proactively inform MPCTA of changes to the workload or working conditions of faculty.
- The contract would make the Athletic director and Library direct administrative positions– the Athletic director would become a Student Services Dean and the Library director would be an administrative director.
- Negotiations would begin again, no later than 2/15/2019
Please attend the meeting tomorrow to discuss this proposal further. If you have any questions or concerns please contact me at handley.lauren@gmail.com or my mpc.edu email.