We had a good turnout at our Guild Adjunct Meeting on October 17, 2015. There were more than 80 attendees. The turnout presented a strong message that adjuncts care about representation and believe in their Guild! We hope to see you at all Guild meetings forth coming!
Guild Membership Benefits
Non-Guild members are encouraged to join. Just because you pay dues, that does not mean that you are automatically a member. When you become a member, you have voting rights and can take advantage of membership benefits from the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) and the American Federation of Teacher (AFT). http://www.cft.org and www.aft.org. If you are unsure if you are a member, please contact Guild President, Zohara Kaye, zkaye@glendale.edu and she will double check for you. The application can be found here: http://www.glendale.edu/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=11740.
FLEX Credit
If you have any concerns or want information about faculty development, contact Lara Kartalian at larak@glendale.edu. Lara can help you arrange to lead a professional development workshop on campus or attend conferences that you may be interested in attending. Adjunct faculty may run, arrange or suggest a workshop, for which FLEX credit can be earned for attending. At the moment, the Staff Development budget does not have funding to send faculty to conferences; however, there is hope that this will change within a year or so.
Please visit the Staff Development website, http://www.glendale.edu/index.aspx?page=120, for more information.
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For those of you who are not familiar with FLEX, Glendale College is on a flexible calendar in which faculty members are paid one week’s worth of teaching hours in advance. It is expected that faculty will use this week’s pay for professional development within an academic year, July 1st through June 30th. FLEX verifications are submitted by May 15th. Completed verification forms can be turned in earlier than May 15th; they can be turned in using the Staff Development mailbox in the mailroom or Lara’s mailbox in the same location. KEEP COPIES FOR YOURSELF! Reviews of FLEX normally do not begin until the Winter session. If FLEX is not completed in time, the advance for FLEX can be deducted from your pay. For faculty that had deductions scheduled for not completing FLEX in the 2014-2015 calendar year, an email from Lara went out advising of such by September 30, 2015 with GCC FLEX 2014-2015 in the subject line.
In other FLEX news, Lara is considering pilot programs next year to electronically monitor FLEX. In the meantime, it is highly recommended that adjunct faculty take advantage of the Fillable/Printable Individually Planned Activity or Research Form which is useful when relevant activities for which there are no FLEX forms printed. Finally, if you find you have more FLEX time completed than is required, you may be interested to know that one eighth of a unit can be earned for each additional FLEX hour, toward educational credit for payroll step advancement.
Grievances and Weingarten Rights
Paul Vera is your Grievance Officer. If you would like to speak to the Guild about a grievance, please do not hesitate to contact him (pvera@glendale.edu).
You are encouraged to know you Weingarten Rights, which are:
a. A right to union representation during an investigatory interview. It is up to the faculty member to invoke their Weingarten Rights. However, per contractual agreement, Article III, Section 2B, supervisors are to inform you of your right to Guild representation. Your contract can be found here: http://www.glendale.edu/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=1186
b. If there is ever a time that you feel you may have a disciplinary action against you, use these words: “If this discussion could in any way lead to my being disciplined or discharged, I request that my Union representative be present at the meeting. Without representation, I choose not to answer any questions.”
Staff Parking
Parking has been an ongoing issue at the main campus – even with the new parking structure. The Campus Police understand this concern for faculty members, and it is understood that this can be of greater concern for part-time faculty who teach at several campuses -- making it difficult to move between campuses in a timely manner. Samir Abou-Rass, from campus police, would like to remind faculty that there are approximately 50 spaces sometimes overlooked in the new parking structure, which are designated for faculty. These parking spaces are located on the ramp between the 2nd and 3rd floor of the parking structure.
Further, if contractors (working on the new building) are taking up more than one parking space, it was recommended that faculty report this to Campus Police.
Negotiations
These items, especially pertinent to part-time faculty, have been tentatively agreed upon:
1. The same language applied to full-time faculty to move on the steps pay scale where educational units are applied other than college courses is also applicable to part-time faculty.
2. The district is willing to guarantee personal storage spaces for adjunct (part-timers) in the way of lockers, and additional office space to hold office hours.
3. District leaning toward a mutual understanding of what is meant by 67% load and agreeing that ancillary activities and office hours are not part of the 67% load. Negotiating team is attempting to address to the district that teaching winter and summer sessions also do not count in the 67% load.
4. The pilot program on student evaluation performed electronically has not been adopted and may not be until Spring 2016; this semester will see paper evaluations.
5. Many negotiations that are underway, but have not been tentatively agreed upon include:
A. General raise: 4.25 for full-timers and 4.75 for part-timers retroactive to July 1st 2015.
B. Office hours: Negotiating team is attempting to get comparable office hours for non-credit faculty.
6. If an agreement is not reached, negotiations are moved to impasse, where a judicial body, the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), intervenes in negotiations.
California Federation of Teachers (CFT)-Report
Julie Wolfgram, the GCC representative to the CFT Part-time Committee, reminds us of the importance of maintaining awareness of the lack of parity between adjuncts and full-time faculty. “Campus Equity Week,” which was just held last week, can help do this, in addition to the organized events surrounding last year’s “National Adjunct Walk Out Day” For more information, the following websites were recommended:
Adjunct Ancillary Stipends
There are many opportunities to get involved in the campus for which adjunct faculty can receive compensation. This information can also be found by visiting the Guild’s Adjunct Faculty webpage, http://www.glendale.edu/index.aspx?page=2539, specifically the application webpage: http://www.glendale.edu/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=6151 .
Maternity/Paternity Leave
It is understood that the district does not deduct pay for State Disability Insurance (SDI); therefore, adjuncts cannot receive “partial income replacement” (http://paidfamilyleave.org/ask-us/what-are-my-rights) through Paid Family Leave. Phyllis Eckler had diligently addressed this issue, http://www.glendale.edu/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=6104 , in the past. It continues to be a concern for part-time faculty; therefore, it is currently being researched.
Unemployment Insurance
Adjuncts qualify to receive Unemployment Insurance between assignments, during winter and summer breaks. Many Employment Development Department (EDD) interviewers are not aware of this. Therefore, it is important during the interview process that a part-timer state that they do not have “reasonable assurance” of employment even if they have contracted for the regular sessions, as even with the contract there is NEVER “reasonable assurance.” You can get more information on this by visiting the Guild’s Adjunct Faculty webpage, http://www.glendale.edu/index.aspx?page=2539 , specifically the following two pages: http://www.glendale.edu/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=10723 and http://www.glendale.edu/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=9222 .
Resources and Links
Guild on Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GCCGuild
GCC Employees have their own newsletter, Chaparral News, where you can find issues and life of interest to faculty at Glendale Community College! Discover it for yourself at https://campusguides.glendale.edu/chaparral.
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