Adjunct Junction: "Meeting in a Box"

by Julie Gamberg

Guild 2nd Vice President - Adjunct Faculty Representative

 

Although we had phenomenal attendance at this fall’s part-time faculty Guild meeting, I realize that many who would have liked to have been there were not able to come to a Wednesday mid-day meeting. Please remember that we do alternate the times of the meeting each semester, rotating between times that will best serve PT evening faculty, Saturday faculty, M/W/F faculty, and T/TH faculty. For those who were not able to attend, or for those who would like a refresher, or web links/resources, I have assembled this “meeting in a box” (or “on the screen”) to review some of the pertinent points and to provide further resources.

The most important point, however, is to please communicate with me or someone from the Guild Executive Board about any pertinent issues, and please VOTE on Guild reopeners and contracts so that your voice is represented in all discussions and so that your voice counts.

And, as I have written before, I value your questions, concerns and ideas and need to hear from you about how to best represent you. I will always strive to get you clarification on issues that might be unclear, to hear your ideas about what needs to be improved, and to be a thoughtful, fair-minded, yet tenacious advocate. Please email me about anything, anytime, at jgamberg@glendale.edu. I will never use your name without your permission.

I. ANNOUCEMENTS

GUILD SPONSORED PART-TIMERS MONTHLY BROWN BAG & ICED TEA LUNCH – FLEX!!
Please join me this fall for a few very informal brown bag lunches to discuss Guild issues with a special focus on issues affecting part-time faculty. We will meet on the following three dates at the college hour. Bring your own brown bag lunch. Iced tea will be provided, courtesy of the Guild and the Culinary Arts Department.

September 30
October 28
November 18

What? Part-time faculty brown bag monthly lunch
Where? LB424 (Library, Fourth Floor)
When? 12:20-1:20 p.m.
Flex? Yes. You may receive one hour of flex for attending.

IMPORTANT TECH SUPPORT PHONE NUMBER FOR NIGHT AND SATURDAY FACULTY
This was not covered at the meeting, but I wanted to draw your attention to a recent change in IT procedures for evening and weekend faculty. According to a newsletter from the President’s office:

Although there have been some changes within the Information Technology (IT) department, the level of classroom support for instructors has not changed. The main IT office is staffed from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and can be reached at extension 4357 if services are needed. For night and weekend classes, there are lab techs on duty that can provide support for faculty. After hour classroom technology support is available Monday through Friday from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and on Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The after hour support staff can be reached at extension 4358.
I recommend to evening and Saturday faculty that you put the “4358” extension your phone for future IT needs.

II. GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES

Your Grievance Officer is currently Paul Vera. Please do not hesitate to contact him if you have questions or need help or support with a possible grievance. Further, it is important to know your Weingarten rights which read:

“If an employee has a reasonable belief that discipline or other adverse consequences may result from what he or she says, the employee has the right to request union representation. When the employee makes the request for a union representative to be present management has three options:
(1) it can stop questioning until the representative arrives.
(2) it can call off the interview or,
(3) it can tell the employee that it will call off the interview unless the employee voluntarily gives up his/her rights to union representation (an option the employee should always refuse).”

Rule 1 - The employee must make a clear request for Union representation before or during the interview. The employee can’t be punished for making this request.
Rule 2 - After the employee makes the request, the supervisor must either:i. Grant the request and delay the interview until the Union representative arrives and has a chance to consult privately with the employee;ii. Deny the request and end the interview immediately; or iii. Give the employee the choice of having the interview without representation or ending the interview.
Rule 3 - If the supervisor denies the request and continues to ask questions, this is an unfair labor practice and the employee has a right to refuse to answer. The employee cannot be disciplined for such refusal but is required to sit there until the supervisor terminates the interview. Leaving before this happens may constitute punishable insubordination.

What are some situations where you might need to invoke your Weingarten Rights?

• Fraud in securing or maintaining employment. 
• Neglect of duty. 
• Insubordination. 
• Dishonesty. (i.e. stealing, lying, fraud, theft, and falsifying record or reports.) 
• Use or possession of intoxicants or illegal drugs while on duty; or off-duty use which impedes performance. 
• Absence without leave. 
• Misuse of District property. 
• Conviction of a felony or conviction of a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude. 
• Misuse of sick leave, including excessive or patterned absenteeism or tardiness. 
• Sexual harassment or abuse of students or employees.

General Guidelines 

• Trust your instincts. 
• Consider your relationship with the Division Chair. 
• Consider the Division Chair’s position. 
• Avoid making this personal. 
• Obey now, grieve later.

If invoking your Weingarten Rights, you may 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.”

III. GCC FLEX OBLIGATION

Roger Bowerman met with part-time faculty to explain that because events you attend may not always have a flex form available, you may verify your attendance with the Adjunct Attendance Verification Form (see links and resources at the bottom). Adjunct Faculty may want to keep one of these with your materials so that you can use it at any events where flex forms are not provided (for example, the brown bag part-time faculty lunches mentioned above).

IV. FACCC

FACCC (Faculty Association of California Community Colleges ) advocates in Sacramento for the rights of all faculty in Community College. There are currently over 4000 part time faculty members in FACCC. Your membership is important.
FACCC is holding a statewide symposium, for Part Time Faculty here at the Glendale Community College in November. Please consider attending.

V. GUILD REOPENERS / NEGOTIATIONS

Initial Guild Proposal to District

District keeps BS Rebates for 3 years if all parties agree.

• Additional $80k/year to Adjunct Healthcare Fund through December 2017 in exchange for receiving the District’s ACA eligibility formula.
• Increase BS HMO office visit co-pay from $5 to $10
• Increase BS 90/70 PPO deductible from $250/$500 to $500/$1,000 OR keep the deductible at $250/$500 and change to 80/60 plan w/ same max out-of-pocket as now.
• Extend Healthcare opt-out program through December 2017 at current levels.
• Add a third covered dental cleaning per year

Increase all salary schedules by approx. 2% [Note: District likely to start around 0.42%]

• Make permanent the 0.5% adjunct faculty salary increase from 2013-14
• Add one step (Step 7) and doctoral column to Adjunct Salary Schedules B1 and B2
• Increase full-time overload pay rates to Adjunct Hourly Schedule (B2) without Parity
• Add one anniversary step to each of Columns 1-4 of Schedule A (I-16, II-19, III-22 and IV-25).
• Increase retiree HC/LTC allowance to $10,200/yr. and Medicare gap insurance to $200/mo. (future retirees).

a. 2014-15 BUDGET ITEMS

i. COLA at 0.85% 
ii. Growth at 2.75% ...we need to chase this 
iii. Increase funding rate for Career Dev. & College Prep. to same rate as credit courses in 2015-16 
iv. Will bring approx. $3.4 million starting 2015-16 

b. Continuing Business i. Division Chair Evaluation Forms – District  ii. Online student evaluations Program now loaded onto GCC servers  Training set to commence  IF training completed the system can be implemented 7th-9th week of semester  50% response rate required or traditional evaluations will be administered.   c. Adjunct Healthcare i. Lg. part of membership receives no HC benefits.  ii. $85k is placed into Adjunct HC Fund annually  iii. Current need is $165k.  iv. ACA dictates healthcare to be provided by employers for those working 30+ hours/wk. starting Jan 1, 2015  v. IRS allows colleges to calculate total weekly adjunct work hours as Classroom Hours x 2.25, or devise an alternative rational formula  vi. District to use Total Wkly Hrs = Weekly Class Hrs x 35 Load  vii. Multiplier would range from 1.45 (24 load) to 2.50 (14 load)  viii. Class hours/wk needed: 21 hrs. for 24 load, 12 hrs for 14 load

Glendale College Guild @GCCGuild

d. Healthcare Budgeting Issues

i. District seeking reduction in healthcare costs 
ii. $0 in final budget for healthcare increases. 
iii. Normal 10% allocation should have been $572k 
iv. 2013 Blue Shield Experience Rebate is $496k 
v. We also carried $32k over from last year. 
vi. There’s been no increase to retiree HC benefit allowances since 2008

e. Current Challenge

i. Maintain high quality healthcare options 
ii. Provide incentives for employees to select lower cost plans 
iii. Promote greater fairness in allocation of resources 
iv. Address longer-term sustainability in HC costs 
v. Sustain Adjunct HC Fund 
vi. Increase retiree healthcare allowance 
vii. Increase Medicare supplement plan

 VI. LINKS AND RESOURCES

I.  Grievance Officer -  Paul Vera, pvera@glendale.edu
II. FACC Membership: www.faccc.org; Registration for November Part Time Faculty Symposium: http://www.faccc.org/event/ptfs2014
III. Flex Hours: Keep this form with you while you are on-campus for events that do not have flex forms http://www.glendale.edu/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=2241 And, for flex that you carry out off-campus, such as conference attendence, etc. you can also fill out this form for Individually Planned Activities
IV. Adjunct Ancillary Funds http://www.glendale.edu/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=6151
V. Guild Application http://www.glendale.edu/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=11740
(Please make sure you’re a member – you pay dues anyway but this way you can vote!)
VI. Annual Guild Meeting Schedule http://www.glendale.edu/index.aspx?page=2551
(We would like to see more part-time faculty attending these monthly Guild meetings! Lunch is always served!) 
VI. CalSTRS http://www.calstrs.com/general-information/glendale-member-service-center

Visit us on the web: www.glendale.edu/guild and http://gccguild.org

 

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